


The Smelting

by vuldromeda



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Hermione Granger, Dark Harry, Demisexual Remus Lupin, F/M, Harry Potter is a Horcrux, M/M, Misguided Albus Dumbledore, Multi, My First Fanfic, Mystery, POV Third Person, Romance, Sex Magic, Sirius Black Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Sirius Black Lives, Tags May Change, The Golden Trio, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, misguided Ronald weasley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:47:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 30,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23164246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vuldromeda/pseuds/vuldromeda
Summary: "A smelt is a triad that, when accepted, extracts the purest magic out of each individual's core for use."After saving Sirius, the Golden Trio spend time at Grimmauld Place, researching to help defeat Voldemort. How will Hermione react when she becomes convinced she has a smelt with Sirius and Remus? Worst of all, how will she deal with Harry's increasingly dark moods and habits? Based off a dream I had a couple days ago that got stuck in my head.Hermione is of age in all aspects of this fanfiction, rating may change as story progresses. Updates every one to two weeks.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Remus Lupin, Sirius Black/Hermione Granger, Sirius Black/Hermione Granger/Remus Lupin, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 175
Kudos: 524





	1. The Prologue

“Rennerverate! Bloody hell, Hermione, you better not be dead…” Hermione started with a gasp, only to wince in pain. She glanced down as her clothed side, covered in what she first thought was dirt but soon realized was blood. Her blood. She dizzily looked up to see who cast the spell, grimacing at Neville’s face through the pain. “I did what I could to stop the bleeding, but nothing worked aside from covering it, like you taught me.”

“Thanks, Neville. What have I-” Hermione was cut off by a shriek. The room began to fill with Death Eaters and Order members, spells ricocheting off walls or hitting their targets. Hermione couldn’t tell which side was winning, and quite frankly she didn’t want to know. She needed to find Harry. Giving a cursory glance of thanks and recognition to Neville, she braced herself against the pain and rushed into the flood of color, out of the alcove she had been unconscious in.

Protective charms, hastily cast “Stupefy”s, and “Expelliarmus”s flew out her mouth as she ran to the exit, dodging people and spells alike. Cursing her lower-than-normal reflexes due to her injury, she reached the door at a jog. Her mind spun with her frantic planning; how was she to not only find Harry, but find him in time? Luckily, it seemed that the Death Eaters picked the wrong door and she had a bit more moments that she expected—the door-bordered circular room was empty, and none of the other doors showed signs of distress or attack.

Quickly finishing the loose ends of her half-baked plan, she nodded to herself and set out to quickly mark each door, step in, look for trouble, and step out. _After all,_ Hermione thought, _where there’s Harry, trouble is bound to follow._ After a few doors, she opened one and immediately saw Harry. For a second, she felt her heart swell, victorious, before feeling it sink, still half-grown, settling at her stomach with dread. She quickly thought back; this door opened too easily, there was distress that she didn’t realize.

She stared at the face of none other than Bellatrix Black, her heart pounding. Harry was facing off against some Death Eater that Hermione didn’t take time to recognize, because she quickly focused in on who captured Bellatrix’s attention: Sirius. Remus was there too, she noted, but was split between protecting Sirius or Harry. Making his decision for him, she ran forward, toward the woman she never thought she’d willingly touch, let alone in an act of aggression.

As she got close enough to be seen, she noted Sirius’s face pale, which Bellatrix took as fear of her, not fear for Hermione. The room was too big, too many steps to get to the Veil, where they were mid-duel, and she feared she wouldn’t make it before Sirius made a blunder. It would only be too easy in his case, hollowed by Azkaban and quick to anger, especially when Bellatrix taunted him for his forced lack of guardianship over Harry. Just as Bellatrix released a quip angering Sirius to the point of thinking with his fists instead of his much more capable wand, they collided. Rather, Hermione collided, Bellatrix kind of just… moved with the impact, a small breath taken out of her but nothing the worse for wear.

But, Hermione triumphantly saw, when she looked down there was surprise. Bellatrix grabbed the other witch’s arm, thankfully not her wand-drawing arm, and yanked her in front of her, wand pointed at her head. Had Hermione had another moment to think, she would have rolled her eyes as the drama, the parallels her new wizarding life had to cheesy villain movies where the damsel in distress was held at gunpoint. However, Hermione was not a damsel in distress, thank you very much, and she would prove it.

As Sirius argued with Bellatrix, wand-hand twitching over its lack of use, Hermione thought. The other Order members would come in any minute, if they were able, and Hermione still had use of her wand. Her plan was simply executed, but with a small chance of success; Remus and Harry were busy dealing with some extra Death Eaters that had come in while she was running, and if Sirius did something too rash before her time came she would be forced to act early.

Luck, for once, it felt, was on her side, however. Just as she was beginning to get anxious, the Order members finally arrived, as the Death Eaters came in as well. There were whispers of Voldemort’s and Dumbledore’s arrival, but Hermione didn’t have time to be surprised, she had to act.

“Sirius, go help Harry,” she yelled, earning herself a cackle from the witch holding her captive.

“Is the little traitor to the family-line not good enough to even save Potter’s measly mudblood,” Bellatrix cooed, making Sirius turn red in the face. “Has Azkaban made you so useless you have to pretend to help the child you couldn’t protect even without enemies?” Before Sirius could respond, Hermione answered for him.

“No,” she fiercely yelled, “He is better than you could ever be. But,” she quickly moved her wand into position, “I don’t need saving from a bitch like you!” At this she stepped on Bellatrix’s foot and cast a disarming spell at her wand-hand. Bellatrix shrieked, her wand sent to Hermione’s hand, who had moved away when Bellatrix gasped in pain and shock. The older witch glared darkly before taking a step forward.

“You will pay for this, you belligerent little mudblood! You’re lucky my Lord has called us back.” At this, Hermione looked around as Bellatrix apparated away. She hadn’t noticed that the remaining Death Eaters were either finishing their duels or were captured, the rest having already moved out at Voldemort’s request. She sighed, resigning herself to having to play catch-up once again as she walked to Sirius.

"I didn't know you cursed, kitten," Sirius joked. Rolling her eyes, she grinned at him, her adrenaline making her care just a little to less and act a little more cocky. Before she could respond, however, she became faint and her vision went black as Sirius yelled her name and rushed to catch her.

* * *

She groaned. Again. Wondering if rude awakenings were a bad habit she was developing or an unfortunate coincidence, she slowly opened her eyes to the absurdly too-bright room. Blinking quickly to clear away the spots forming, she quickly moaned as she felt the pressure applied to her injury increase. She looked at the aged, kind yet stern hands of Madame Pomfrey, changing her dressings and ensuring it was a snug fit. Pomfrey looked at her, a strange mix of pity and surprise crossing over her face.

“What…” Hermione cleared her throat, finding her throat dry and her voice hoarse. “What happened?” Pomfrey’s expression softened, and she glanced at the chair that Hermione realized held a shaggy black dog.

“Perhaps you should be with your… pet for a minute while I send for Harry and Ron, they requested to be notified when you wake up.” After swiftly double-checking her bandages and filling a cup on her bedside with water, she left and closed the curtains around Hermione’s bed and the chair next to it, placing a simple silencing charm for added privacy. As soon as Hermione and Sirius were enclosed in the silenced curtains, he transformed back to himself, rushing to hold Hermione’s hand with both of his.

“You’ve been out for awhile, you know,” Sirius said quietly, almost as if talking to himself rather than her.

“How long, Sirius? What happened?”

“It’s been three or four days, I lost track of time stuck here as Snuffles. You got hit by Dolohov before you came to the Veil Room, a nasty curse that probably would have killed you had he not been silenced.” He glanced at her side, wincing apologetically almost as if he were the one who raised his wand to her. “He was one of the heralds for Harry’s arrival, I guess he wanted to get a head start on the fight but forgot to take off his own spell.” She asked how bad it was, cringing a bit when he said it’d most likely scar. She listened as he talked about how scared he was that Harry would lose one of his best friends, how healing spells only made her bleed faster. She gasped when he said that Voldemort and Dumbledore faced off, when Harry had a prophecy that shattered, and how Voldemort was really after that prophecy even though he already knew most of it. No one really knew the details, and Dumbledore left almost immediately after Voldemort, only assuring that Mad-Eye and Tonks had the captured Death Eaters under control before leaving back to Hogwarts.

By the time he finished explaining what he knew and answering her questions as best he could, Harry and Ron had arrived, surprisingly accompanied by the Headmaster himself. After their greetings and teary-eyed smiles and half-hugs, Dumbledore cleared his throat, and everyone quickly silenced themselves for him to speak.

“Miss Granger, were you aware of what the Veil is capable of?” He looked directly into her eyes, although she broke eye contact near immediately after feeling him lightly prod her mind. At her quiet headshake, he continued. “The Veil is a passage between the realm of the living and the dead, had Sirius dueled Bellatrix and even touched it, he would have fallen into the world of the dead, never to return. You almost certainly saved his life.” Ignoring her gasp of shock at this, he continued. “However, aside from congratulating your heroism and wishing you a speedy recovery, after you all had returned to Hogwarts, Sirius had requested a discussion after you woke up to give you time to spend with Harry and Ron.”

At his look, Sirius got up from his seat and moved to Dumbledore, Harry quickly taking the now empty seat. When the Golden Trio was finally left alone, they quietly discussed what happened and Harry, to Hermione’s delight, brought with him the homework she had missed. They were interrupted when they heard Sirius’s voice raise, although still muffled from the now-fading silencing charm Pomfrey placed. Grabbing her wand, she quickly dispelled the charm, catching the back-end of their argument.

“I don’t care about blood protection, he clearly isn’t safe there! I will take him home as soon as he has spent a week there, we both know that should be enough time to keep him protected! He has basically lived away from them every year and you never were concerned about that,” Sirius yelled over his shoulder as he opened the curtains, ignoring Dumbledore’s attempted reply and Pomfrey’s attempt to quiet them down. He grinned apologetically at Harry, glancing at Ron and letting his gaze linger on Hermione for a second longer than expected before going back to Harry. Hermione, already knowing what was probably going to happen, began preparing a plan to make the public see Sirius’s innocence, mentally rolling her eyes at his impulsiveness. Harry, oblivious as ever, looked at him questioningly. He lost his apologetic smile, instead beaming at Harry before asking the obvious.

“So, what do you think about living with me from now on?”


	2. Chapter 1: New Beginnings for Something Better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is relatively short (just over 1000 words), I felt that the ending was too good to soften with a continuation, so I'll begin writing the new chapter now and hopefully post later today. Hope you enjoy!

As expected, Harry agreed to move in, to the surprise of no one, but the surprising disappointment of Dumbledore. At least, his disappointment was surprising to Harry and Ron. In any case, Hermione had decided to stay on the sidelines for once, quietly gathering information on the “Greater Good” and Dumbledore’s opinions, which she was somewhat shocked to find weren’t as good as she expected. Of course, she had no reason to doubt him before, but now that Sirius has gotten into a fight over Harry’s wellbeing no less, Hermione took the time to carefully think through her beliefs, and decided to continue doing so until she could come to a more definitive conclusion. No matter what, she believed he was in no means a bad person, she just felt as if he might be past his prime, making small lapses of judgement.

In the meantime, she had to continue planning for Sirius’s innocence and start planning for her family situation. As the Golden Trio neared summer, she agreed to stay first at Grimmauld Place to help clean out some rooms and sort out Harry’s belongings. Writing to her parents, she promised to visit for the last two weeks of break, and that was that. She had time to decide on what to do to protect her family, which she was constantly reminded of by the injury Dolohov gifted her smarting every breath she took. So, ignoring the sense of dread she felt at being unable to help her parents immediately, she immersed herself in studying for finals and writing her ideas to help Sirius down on parchment.

She knew her plan needed to revolve, unfortunately, around Rita Skeeter. Hermione still had the ability to blackmail her, and would need to send a letter regarding Sirius’s lack of a trial. She quickly wrote that letter off with a sigh, requesting a meeting regarding his “potential” innocence. With that out of the way she was free to draft up her evidence, continuing to correspond with Remus to get information that would help her convince Skeeter to pen an article and get it through to the front page. Maybe the second page, if she was forced to negotiate. While everything seemed to be going well with Sirius, Hermione simply couldn’t figure out what to do regarding her parents. How could she possibly protect them without using intensive wards? She knew she needed to act by the end of summer, as Bellatrix’s implied threat read all too clear in her mind, she would pay for touching the witch, and she worried her parents would be harmed due to her actions.

As a result, her stress rose, signalled by her increased frizz and decreased appetite, taking to frantically reworking her notes during meals instead. Harry filled her plate, which she absentmindedly took small bites of in-between thoughts. Just as even Ron began to notice something being off (a remarkable feat considering it occurred while he was busy eating), finals came and half of her stress was gone.

Relieved, Harry and Ron backed off a little more, going back to being simply best friends instead of somewhat concerned parents, and Hermione’s thoughts became a little more clear. She was confident that she made astounding grades, even though she double-checked with her friends regarding specific questions, so she was relieved to be done with the year and begin preparing for the next. However, as she went through the feast and train ride back to Station 9 ¾ she felt hazy, getting closer to needing to enact her plan to save Sirius, although this time only legally.

* * *

“Hello again, Harry,” Remus smiled at Harry, the first to get off the train of their little group. He held a pink leash, leading to Sirius—Snuffles, rather—wearing a studded, matching pink collar. Stifling a laugh, Harry reached down to scratch his head, ruffling his fur so it stuck up in odd directions before hugging Remus. He hadn’t felt this light in ages, released from the strain of the Dursleys. As Hermione and Ron got off the train and noticed Snuffles, they laughed and parted ways so Ron could go off to his family and Hermione could cart her bag over to Remus and Harry.

“I see you took my suggestion, Professor” Hermione teased, lightly tugging on Snuffles’s collar as she took Remus’s hand before being pulled in for a hug, similar to how Harry was greeted. Remus had always been particularly fond of Hermione, she was the brightest student he had taught and she always surprised him with her occasional sass and intellectual intelligence. Even after only a few weeks teaching her, he had begun to see her as a peer, which was only furthered by his resigning.

“Please, Hermione, Remus is fine,” he said, giving her a gentle smile. “It’s good to see you under better circumstances.” He gestured for them to begin walking, Harry taking the leash so he could walk ahead of Hermione and Remus. As Remus took Harry’s luggage, Harry laughed at Hermione’s admittance of sending over the collar and leash before beginning to walk. Smiling at his back, Hermione decided that no matter what Dumbledore thought, anything that made Harry this happy was a good thing. She turned to talk to Remus as they walked, her voice hushed so Harry couldn’t hear.

She was so relieved that Harry felt better but wanted to be alert in case he got worse again, so she told Remus about her previous concerns. Harry had been darker before the incident in the Ministry, snapping at Ron and Hermione and smiling less. It got to the point where she had talked Ron into being more patient with him, taking to pinching his arm when his temper began boiling over. Harry had been obsessing over Draco more than normal, to the point of writing notes regarding suspicious behavior.

However, she continued on to say that she wasn’t nearly as stressed as if she hadn’t kept her time turner, which she now realized was perhaps the only one left in the country. Due to her use of it previously, she was already a year older, she had turned 17 shortly after starting school and had gone with McGonagall to the Ministry to present their calculations proving she was just over three years older due to the time turner. As a result, she had her trace cleared and was allowed to use the time turner yet again to take her apparation training and, she admitted with a laugh, she may have used it to do some animagus meditation.

Shaking his head, Remus put his hand on her shoulder momentarily. “You really are something else, Hermione.” She laughed, and they peacefully made their way to Grimmauld Place, her mind relatively quiet for the first time in awhile.


	3. Chapter 2: Hermione's Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry for not posting recently, our internet was down for a few days so I couldn't post. This chapter does contain a minor content warning, though! Most of it is okay, but when Hermione reads the passage regarding smelts, there is talk of the sexual attraction regarding them. There is some harmful connotations to part of it, so if you are asexual or demisexual (or in that spectrum) and would like to know if you need to skip it, read the chapter notes at the end, please! Thank you for reading :)

Arriving at Grimmauld Place’s doorstep, they got their bags into the entrance hall before Sirius, in his excitement to get out of the facade of a family pet, changed back before Harry had taken off the collar, so the small group was treated to the image of him being attached to a lead, almost begging to be dragged along. He quickly ripped it off his neck and offered to escort Harry to his new room, leaving Remus and Hermione alone.

Turning slightly to look at him, Hermione smirked. “I didn’t know he was into that sort of thing,” she remarked before beginning to walk into the kitchen to make a light meal, pretending she didn’t hear his choked sputtering, a light bounce in her step. If Remus refused to keep his role as an educator to her, she refused to be mothered by him, and she smiled lightly as she thought of how she would show that they were to be peers.

Dismay displaced her humor at her quick comment to Remus, however, when she had to scour the entirety of the kitchen to find enough food to gather enough ingredients for some sandwiches for the four of them. She noticed there was just enough left for Kreacher, if he’d like, which relieved her as she didn’t know where he got his food from, or even when he ate.

As she made the sandwiches, she casually chatted with Remus while waiting for Sirius and Harry to come down. When the boys had all settled onto the barstools, she set down their plates before leaning against the counter, plate in hand. “Does Kreacher need any food? We have some extra if he needs it, and we’ll need to get a shopping list for him to get for us if we plan to actually live here for awhile.” Nodding, he gestured to the fridge.

“Just put it in the fridge, and when we make our list you can put a note for him.” Smiling at him, she agreed and quickly finished eating so she could set up Kreacher’s food while the others finished up. She didn’t know what he would like so she separated what they had left on a plate so he could make what he’d like, and placed it in the fridge, which was really just an elaborately made pantry with a well-made cooling charm held in place by runes.

After they were all done in the kitchen, Hermione asked to be shown where she would stay, which ended up being in-between Sirius and Remus. Harry, of course, was opposite Sirius, in Regulus’s old room which Sirius had cleaned up, storing away some sentimental items in his own room. Once she had placed her luggage on the bed, which she had been told she could color and change up as she wished, she knocked on Harry’s door and helped him settle in.

* * *

They had been there for about two weeks so far, and Hermione thought they had settled in nicely. Harry and Sirius had spent quite a bit of time together, playing cards or Exploding Snap while Remus and Hermione read or wrote letters. She was becoming mildly worried over his declining mood, but he wasn’t in a _bad_ mood, per se, so she figured it was just the excitement wearing off, the anticipation of having to head to the Dursleys settling in. Harry and Hermione took turns cooking food after Remus had sheepishly admitted that they had spent a good portion of their nights ordering takeaway instead of making meals. Ron had come over a plethora of times, bringing the signature cake or fudge over to tide them over in terms of sweets, which Hermione hadn’t quite mastered yet. Occasionally Ginny visited, holding chocolate frogs or some items they had requested sent over when Remus was unavailable.

Whenever Ron visited, he often stayed for a night or two, passing along messages from Molly first thing after flooing in. Most commonly was the complaint that Hermione shouldn’t be staying alone with a gaggle of guys, which she laughed off each time, assuring both Ron and Molly that there was nothing wrong with it. Whenever he came over, though, Hermione was reminded of an argument they had had over it…

… _ “Hey, ‘Mione, still staying here instead of rooming with Ginny at the Burrow?” Hermione gently laughed, shaking her head. _

_ “Of course, Ron, who else would be able to convince Harry to settle himself properly and help him make a list of what he needed from the Dursleys?” She began to turn away to walk into the parlour, but Ron had grabbed her arm, just rough enough to make her turn around near immediately due to discomfort. He loosened his grasp on her, but still held on before speaking. _

_ “Seriously, Hermione, mum and I both think you shouldn’t be here by yourself, you need some more women around to balance it out.” Her eyes widened and her mouth opened to respond, but was interrupted. “No, listen to me! You’re getting too comfortable here, Ginny told me you’re practically snuggled against Remus and Sirius whenever she’s around. They’re practically our parents, you can’t be like that!” She ripped her arm away from him, and her hair frizzed, crackling like lightning was being shot out of the cloud of mocha curls. _

_ “No,  _ you  _ listen to me, Ronald! They are my peers, I am an adult fighting the same battle as them, planning out those fights, and for one of them I am literally fighting against the law for him. Not only that, but I am not “snuggled against Remus and Sirius,” we both know your sister exaggerated things! So yes, I am still staying here, and I think I’ll stay here for most of summer, thank you very much.” With that, she stormed away, passing by Crookshanks who looked in Ron’s direction in response, growling quietly… _

Shaking her memory away slightly, Hermione basked in the light of the fireplace, sitting on the sofa next to Remus while Ron, Harry, and Sirius played a round of poker, which Sirius insisted on teaching them despite Hermione’s slight disappointment (he claimed that he would’ve taught Harry before he even got to Hogwarts if not for Azkaban, so Hermione had to concede). After a day of silent treatment from Hermione, Ron had apologized and had not mentioned the topic of their argument again, but she still found herself thinking about it on occasion.

She was a bit closer to Remus than she really  _ needed  _ to be, sure, but what else was she supposed to do? Sit as close to the other arm as she could and risk him thinking she was upset with him? That’d be ridiculous, she thought, and settled in her conviction that she was still right regarding the argument, they were just peers.

Relaxing her shoulders, which had tensed when she worried about her proximity to Remus, she tucked into the book she nicked from the Black library from the muggle-born cleared section at random. She found it quite interesting, as it discussed different kinds of bonds within the wizarding world, from familiars (such as Crookshanks, she found) to soulmates (very rare and almost impossible to definitively find). Having grown up in the muggle community, a large amount of these bonds were new to her, and she took care to bookmark ones she would like to research more, particularly the ones regarding house elves. She had started reading about a more unique kind of the already rare triads, smelts, but quickly started becoming suspicious as the passage continued.

_ “Smelts are a rather rare form of triad with one primary difference: unlike normal soulmate duos and trios, they can be almost definitively tested and have largely positive effects on each mate’s magical core. In addition, they are compatible with other soulmate bonds, meaning magical creatures such as werewolves and veelas are capable of being members of smelts. When accepted through a ritual known as the Smelting, the smelt bond acts much as alchemist smelting does using each member’s wand as a tool; it extracts the purest magic out of their cores for use, instead of the normal, somewhat contaminated magic. As a result, magic is strengthened and their cores increased, and emotions and mindsets do not weaken spells but are only capable of strengthening them when appropriate. _

_ There are several characteristics of smelts, the most striking of which being the sexual characteristics…”  _ Hermione flushed slightly at this, but pushed on, forcing herself to read further and confirm or deny her theory.  _ “… Smelts consist of two people primarily attracted to a shared partner, although they are able to be attracted to each other as well. However, only one of them will be sexually attracted as normal to their shared partner. The other member will only experience a strong sexual attraction akin to regular attraction when the other members are together, as smelts are strengthened when engaging in sexual acts or otherwise as a whole triad. In relationships with magical creatures, the pure wizard or witch will generally have the normal sexual appetite, excepting veelas, of course…” _

Hermione’s face paled. It couldn’t be, could it? The lingering smiles, the mild flirting on Sirius’s end… They were just being friendly, adjusting to her being an equal!  _ But it made sense, _ she thought,  _ didn’t it?  _ From Sirius’s new nickname for her (“Kitten, because of Crookshanks, you know?”) to Remus remembering how she takes her tea (one sugar cube and a splash of milk or squeeze of lemon), they were strangely close to each other, falling into a familiarity that people generally acquire after years of close contact. She shook her head slightly, quickly bookmarking the page. She needed to think.

She didn’t have time for this, she was planning to get the article published that would begin Sirius’s freedom tomorrow! She couldn’t have her thoughts of him compromised or brought under scrutiny. Quickly closing the book and setting it onto the side table, she rushed out of the room and up the stairs to write. Her only thoughts were of organizing her thoughts into a well-compiled list, her lapse of judgement leaving her bookmark on the passage regarding smelts, easy for anyone to find as she nearly ran to her room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has word usage referring to non-ace or non-demi sexualities as "normal," implying that to be demisexual (like Remus is in this fic) is abnormal or in some way bad. I do not condone this, but Hermione is reading an antiquated book and this negative connotation will be discussed later in the story and is actively spoken against. If you need to skip it, the paragraph starting with "There are several characteristics of smelts, the most striking of which being the sexual characteristics…" is the entirety of the language, basically just saying that smelts have two people primarily attracted to one other, with one of the two being demisexual or asexual. Thank you for reading :)


	4. Chapter 3: The Truth Comes Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this one! It is perhaps the least in-character chapter so far, so I wasn't really feeling it but for now I'll post it and maybe edit it later. This is my longest chapter so far as well, since I wanted to progress the story a little bit further so I could get into more serious plot points. Enjoy!

“What was that all about?” Ron broke the shocked silence that fell onto the room at Hermione’s abrupt leave. While she hadn’t realized it, her tome made a startlingly loud noise when it was slammed shut, and while everyone jumped, everyone but Harry was perturbed. Remus was staring at the space she had just occupied, just a few inches away from him, while Sirius seemed thoughtful and Ron simply confused.

Sirius began, “Maybe I should check in on h-”

“Who cares,” Harry interrupted. “She probably just realized she didn’t finish her transfiguration homework for next year.” He grabbed the game of Exploding Snap left under the table they played on. “Come on Sirius, you can play a few more games with me.” Sirius hesitated, looking at Remus. At his nod of reassurance, he turned back to Harry, who had already begun setting up the game with Ron. Sirius was worried, Remus could tell.

Harry had clung to Sirius since moving in, barely allowing the weekly hour or two for Order meetings, which he had been infuriated to know Hermione occasionally stayed in for. Thinking back, it was worse than how Sirius had clung to James when he was first offered asylum at the Potter residence, although that was only for a week or so. While Remus had conceded to Harry’s possession over his godfather, he missed Sirius and tried to occupy himself with helping Hermione research, recalling a list she had copied for him of topics to investigate.

Shaking his head slightly, Remus cleared his thoughts and looked to the book Hermione had left,  _ A Complete Collection of Common and Uncommon Magical Bonds.  _ The absurdly long name, commonplace in antiquated magical books, made Remus quietly laugh in mild disbelief before gently picking it up (well, as gently as he could given its hefty weight) and thumbing through the bookmarked pages. He had been glancing at her progress on the book every few minutes and could guess roughly where she would be in the book, but was interested in what else she deemed pertinent information. He noticed a bookmark on house elf bonds and smiled at her determinedness. After noticing a few of the remaining marks were regarding soulmates, he decided to leave the specifics be and instead talk to her about it in person instead of snooping in on her notes.

Rising, he nodded to Sirius and walked up the stairs before gently, but firmly, knocking on Hermione’s door. He heard a thud and a scramble, likely her quickly hiding the things she thought were too private at the moment, and then the click of the door being unlocked. He smiled at her as she cracked open the door halfway to look out at him.

“Hermione, would you mind if I came in for a minute?” Nodding slightly, she opened the door fully and moved back a bit. She quickly pulled out her wand and cast a spell to tidy up a bit, her wand movements directing various objects to fly back to their shelves or turn upright. In her rush to compile her thoughts she had made her room a bit messy, which was slowly getting on her nerves regardless of Remus coming in. Afterwards, she looked back at him and gestured toward the bed questioningly.

Nodding, he sat down on the edge of the bed, letting her sit cross-legged in the center. He placed the book in-between them, and gestured to it. “So, would you like to talk about what has you so frazzled?” Sighing, she leaned back against the headboard.

“I think I’m just overreacting, Remus.” She picked up the book reverently, as only those who adored books like her and Remus do, and placed it in her lap. “When I was reading, it felt like the passage was about a bond I could have, but I’m hoping that maybe I’m just overly aware of Ron’s argument with me.” She laughed dryly, humorless. “He practically said I was throwing myself at you and Sirius, you know.”

“...I heard.” Remus despised his raised senses sometimes, especially when he ended up overhearing private conversations. He grasped her hand, still over the book, and she looked at him.

“I forgot that you would’ve heard, I thought you would have talked to me about it,’’ she gave him a half-smile. “Why didn’t you?” He hesitated for a minute.

“It gave me a lot to think about,” he answered finally. “I don’t think you’ve been flirting with us, but…” He looked away, “I can’t help but think we have been flirting with you.” She looked at him with disbelief, so he continued. “I’m serious, Hermione. Sirius doesn’t give just anyone personal nicknames, and I don’t think I’ve ever paid this much attention to a witch. But it’s wrong, isn’t it? I was your professor!” He put his head in his hands, before moving his hair out of the way and looking at her.

“I was looking at Smelts,” she admitted, moving closer to him after setting the book down beside her bed. She put her hand on his shoulder and continued when he didn’t respond to the name. “It’s a kind of triad, which you may know often can have age gaps due to the rarity.” His eyes widened and he shook his head.

“It can’t be, I can only have pack and mate bonds!” Hermione put aside her anxiety over what kind of life changes this kind of bond would be, if they really had one. She could deal with the effects of compartmentalizing later, Remus needed her.

“Remus, Smelts are compatible with werewolves. They’re extremely powerful and would be a great asset.” She sighed. “We could test it right now, after you read about them? I… didn’t finish the passage, so you could fill me in on anything important?” He rolled back his shoulders before agreeing. He needed something to calm down a bit, and reading always helped. As he stood up to grab the book and move to the desk, Hermione grabbed her notebook and pen from under one of her pillows and began writing the pros and cons of the Smelt, needing to take her mind off of Remus and his stress.

After about ten minutes, she heard Remus close the book and took that as her signal to finish writing her sentence. Looking up at him, she closed her notebook. At his raised brow, she smiled. “This is a lot easier than using parchment and quill, you know. Anyways, do you want to bring in Sirius if you can manage it?”

“Of course, Hermione,” Remus nodded, gently leaving the room.

* * *

“Hey Padfoot, can we have a minute?” Sirius looked up at just the wrong moment, causing the game to explode in his face. Coughing due to the smoke, he nodded, although Harry scowled slightly.

“Play with Ron fow a couple games, okay Harry? You better win and make you godfather proud.” He smiled and put his hand on Harry’s shoulder before walking to Remus. “What’s wrong with Hermione?”  
“Nothing, really. It’s just… you’ll see.” They walked up to Hermione’s room, which Remus had left open. Walking in, Hermione had sat on the bed, with what looked like a spell scrawled on her arm in pen.

“Hey kitten, what’s up?” She smiled at him, shakily.

“Well…” she looked at Remus, and they both began explaining what Hermione suspected. When they were finished, Sirius was stunned into silence, a rarity in Remus’s experience.

“What the hell do you guys mean? How can we know?” He sunk onto the desk chair near him, propping his head up with his hand.

“There’s this spell that will make you lose inhibitions regarding me, if we truly have a Smelt. Remus should act, erm… accordingly, I guess, if he’s here for it. But first, can we talk about what you think?” Sirius groaned, he hated talking about his emotions, he was more of the kind to have a quickie at a muggle bar to avoid complications. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a romantic, per se, but he grew up where war made things uncertain, and he was still in a time like that.

“You’re a fit witch, kitten, I’ll admit you’ve made me need a cold shower or two.” He sighed, “But I don’t know what I feel for you, for anyone really. I don’t do… this.” He gestured toward them vaguely. “Let’s just do the spell then, yeah?” Remus coughed lightly and began to move to the door, trying to excuse himself, but it was too late. Hermione cast the spell quickly, preparing for Sirius to potentially tackle her to the bed, depending on his desires.

At first, Sirius felt nothing, his mind blank with shock regarding the reality of the situation. Then it hit. He felt a rush of need. He needed to get to his witch, needed to  _ claim  _ her. He stood and turned to her before getting onto her bed, pressing his lips to hers. She gasped slightly, then melted into his touch, moaning softly as their kiss deepened. Sirius moved his hands to push her onto the bed so he laid on top of her, and moved to caress her chest.

With this touch, Hermione jerked, moaning before grabbing his wand, and with a simple “Finite” he was back to normal. “Well… I guess that confirms it.” She looked at Remus, who was still staring at her. “How are you holding up?”

He was rock hard. As soon as he saw them collide, Moony spoke up. He needed to claim her, make her his beta, his mate. Even now, he was captivated in her kiss-swollen lips, her tousled hair and heaving chest. “I’m good,” he lied anyways. She glanced down at his crotch and chuckled.

“I’m sure you are, love.” She knew that once her hormones wore off she would be back to her normal, stressed self, but for now she had just kissed a man who she knew now was her mate, and she wanted to enjoy her temporary high. Later she could worry about the power she was given and how Harry would take it.

She walked to Remus and left Sirius to pant on the bed, putting her hand on his waist, brutally close to where he wanted her hand to be, making him groan with need. “I’m going to the library,” she smiled as she walked to the door, pausing to say over her shoulder, “This doesn’t mean you have a free pass on me by the way, I haven’t even been taken on a date.” As she closed the door she heard two groans and smirked. She knew they didn’t cause the soul bonds, but she wanted them to pay just a little for changing her life entirely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go, just a bit of a tease for what's to come :) While Hermione is a bit OOC in this one, she's still Hermione and she'll still obsess over every action and how Ginny-like she was. Plus, she did have the effects of the spell going on and she was busy compartmentalizing to prevent a total meltdown. Anyways, please let me know what you think of this chapter! Also, how would you feel over some Remus/Sirius moments?


	5. Chapter 4: Discussions and Interruptions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for posting this chapter so late! We started online school this week and I needed to adjust, plus I've had to start preparing for some college stuff. You know how it is, you do 500 scholarships because tuition for your first choice is 75k... Well, that's not really how it is for most people. Anyways! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it incorporates the beginnings of some deeper plot and any absurdly OOC moments will be explained in the future.

“Merlin, she really is something else,” Sirius said, a minute or so after catching his breath while Remus uncomfortably adjusted himself. Sitting up, he looked at Remus. “What the hell was in that spell, Moony?”

“I… didn’t look at that too much, but it was a compulsion spell, from what I saw. I wonder if she realizes that it affected her too,” he tilted his head off, beginning to go deep into thought. Before he settled into his own mind too much, Sirius got up and patted his shoulder before opening the door.

“Remember how we would joke about tag-teaming a girl back in school?” At Remus’s smile and somewhat disappointed nod, Sirius sighed. “Well, I think we got the one witch Lily would be okay with us going for; Hermione won’t accept anything less than she deserves.”

* * *

“What do you think is happening up there?” Ron and Harry were on their second game of Exploding Snap and on the verge of starting their third. Ron was getting worried about Hermione; what could be so serious that they stayed up there for so long?

He knew that he was one of the last people she’d want to talk to about any situation she may be going through, as she was still a bit cold to him since their argument, but he cared for her deeply. He loved that she helped him with his homework and did his notes when he was too tired to do it himself. She had a bit of fight and sass, but he thought that in time she would settle down and they could continue the Weasley line, just like his parents did.

On the other hand, Harry seems not at all concerned, just a bit irritated. He wished Hermione would stop taking away some of Sirius’s time; Padfoot was  _ his  _ godfather, not hers. Besides, she still had her parents, unlike him.

“I don’t know, mate,” Harry glanced at Ron before playing his next move. “Why don’t you go up and check? Then maybe Sirius can come down and spend some time with me,” he grumbled, even though his last move caused him to win the game. As he thought about it though, he brightened a little. Perhaps, once Ron and Hermione get together, they’ll stop taking up as much of his and Sirius’s time, respectively.

Although, did he really deserve someone as good as Hermione? What he’d really like, if he thought deeply about it, would be Hermione and Sirius wanting to spend time primarily with him. But he didn’t think deeply about it since Sirius was his priority, and he didn’t have the time to think about something so trivial. Shaking his head, he looked up at Ron, who had already begun standing up. “I’ll clean up the game, Ron, go check on ‘Mione.” Nodding gratefully, Ron left to go to Hermione’s room.

* * *

Curling up into her unofficially claimed nook in the rather large Black library, Hermione took out the notebook she spelled into appearing blank to everyone except herself. She smiled a bit at the memory of how she used the Marauder’s map, looking into the spellwork to identify how to make herself what was essentially a diary with a highly specialized lock. Although this was not simply a diary, it was her plans for… well, everything.

She had her process to legally free Sirius almost finished, but she needed to add their bond as a last-resort piece of evidence. Smelts, she found out when she was looking into the spells to identify them, were only found in those free of a corrupted soul, which was a result of many things, but cold murder was what she focused on.

After writing down her Plan Z, as it was, she placed her correspondences with Rita Skeeter back into the pages and moved onto the section regarding her parents. She had several ideas, but none of them seemed to be foolproof. Before she could settle into her seat and begin brainstorming again, she heard the doors to the library open.

Quickly closing her notebook, paranoid that somehow her spellwork would be faulty, she looked up just in time to see Remus accio a chair over to sit in front of her. Smiling softly, his hand twitched as if he wanted to touch her but was fighting against the urge. With a sigh, she moved herself a bit closer to him and reached out to hold his hand.

“We need to talk, Hermione,” Looking aside quickly, Hermione nodded.

“Did I overstep any boundaries, Remus? I’m sorry for that, I just needed to be sure.” Chuckling quietly, Remus shook his head lightly.

“While I wouldn’t have done what you did, I think it was probably needed at this point. But the main thing to talk about is how we’ll tell Ron and Harry. We both know how possessive Harry is of you and Sirius.” Hermione’s face fell. With all the various plans she had and her summer school work she hadn’t thought of that. Admittedly, she didn’t think about it too much in any case, but she thought it would be much more straightforward than she now realized it would be. Pausing to think for a second, she bit her lip lightly. Stuck in her thoughts as she was, she didn’t notice Remus’s slight shiver, and when she spoke she was looking out the window her nook stood at.

“This will place a target on us, you know. We need to be delicate about how we tell people—and who we tell.” Her melancholy felt almost physical, her hair flattening as if dampened and her eyes looking a touch colder; Remus saw more of a ashy tone instead of her usual honeyed brown. He quickly thought back and noted that her eyes did change quite a bit, soft and sweet like caramel when she was happy or relieved, and almost inhumanly golden when she was bitingly fierce, beautiful and almost like the gold of Moony’s eyes.

His thoughts distracted him for a moment, but he quickly pushed them aside when Hermione began to retreat into herself. No matter what came of this Smelt, he refused to have it start with emotional distancing.

“It’ll be okay, love. We’ll talk it out and figure out who should be informed of the Sme-” Before he could finish his sentence, the library door burst open, a sure sign that it was Ron entering. Hermione and Remus practically sprang apart, not wanting Ron to suspect anything.

“Hey ‘Mione,” Ron called from across the room before taking long steps to quicken his arrival to her side. As he got there, Remus quietly excused himself, although Hermione wished otherwise. She had been a bit antsy by herself with Ron, she’s become a bit of a spitfire around him and didn’t fully trust himself. Steeling herself, she looked up at Ron and smiled. As he sat down, he said, “Sirius said you would be in here, but he didn’t mention Lupin at all. What were you guys talking about?”

“Oh, nothing much. I asked him for his opinion on a passage I read in our DADA textbook.” Nodding at her answer, he moved on to what he really wanted to know.

“Why did you leave the parlor so quickly, ‘Mione?” He reached out to tuck a curl behind her ear and place his hand on her shoulder, ignoring the way she recoiled against his touch. “You can tell me anything, you know.”

“I know, Ron, but I don’t want to talk about it right now. I still need to figure it out.” She shrugged his hand off her and shook her head a bit, letting her curl go back into place, framing her face.

“Then tell me anyways, use me to bounce ideas off of,” he argued, almost forceful in his tone. This rubbed Hermione the wrong way, her hair seemed to crackle and frizzed up, her eyes taking on the golden tone that Remus thought over before.

“No, Ronald. I am not discussing it with you, and you will not make me,” she shot him with a glare, hoping he would freeze up, but instead he smiled at her after pushing back the twitch of irritation he felt.

“Your eyes are beautiful when you’re angry, you know, but I can’t wait for you to look at me without those angry glares all the time.” She bristled, and this time her hair actually crackled, her anger channeling her excess magic into sparks coming out her hair and trying desperately to reach Ron.

“You do  _ not  _ get to speak to me that way, Ron. I am not some decoration for you to look at and admire. Now get out of here before I make you leave, I need to finish up some planning.” He scowled at her before taking a deep breath, put off a bit by her hair, which hadn’t happened before.

“I’ll let this go for now, since you’re stressed, but we’re talking about this later.” He got up and left a little quicker than normal, slamming the door just a bit too hard as he left.

Settling down again, her hair returned to normal and she opened her notebook. She knew she was already a target, and once news of her Smelt came out, as it inevitably would, there would be a bullseye painted on her and her family’s head. She knew that she needed to keep her parents safe, they had no clue about the kind of trouble the wizarding world was in and they couldn’t protect themselves from Death Eaters in the slightest. She thought about what she needed to do, it was like… Her face paled at the realization.  _ It’s like my parents need to forget they ever had a daughter.  _ Fortifying her mind and its compartments so she wouldn’t cry, she wrote furiously in her notebook. She knew what she had to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'll try to post sooner next time, but any comments encourage me to write faster so any comments would be appreciated!


	6. Chapter 5: Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for updating this so late! I've gotten a lot of schoolwork recently, and my state requires we be CPR certified, so I've had extra work. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the next chapter this week and post it soon :) I hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know what you think of it!

She could tell Sirius wanted to discuss their newfound relationship desperately, but Harry had seemed to always drag them apart, and when it wasn’t Harry it seemed as if the universe was hellbent on making them wait just a little bit longer. At one point, even Ginny stopped by, even though that rarely occurred.

Eventually, they got a break when Dumbledore called an Order meeting. They figured that afterward they could talk for a couple minutes at the very least, although when it was time for the meeting they were surprised to find that it was empty aside from the Smelt and Dumbledore. With a twinkle in his eye, Dumbledore turned to them, away from the fireplace, and greeted them quickly before speaking.

“As you all know, Harry must spend some time with his blood family to keep the protection Lily gave him through her sacrifice. That time, unfortunately, is now.” At Sirius’s glower and Remus’s quiet growl of dissent, he put his hands up. “I know it isn’t ideal, but it will only be a week. During that time, Sirius, you can visit as Snuffles and help him pack up anything he needs.” At that, Hermione snorted, but almost immediately looked shocked at herself for her show of mild disrespect and attempted to cover it with a cough.

As Sirius began, to no one’s surprise, arguing, Hermione began to tune out of the conversation slightly. This would provide the perfect opportunity; she had received a letter from Skeeter asking when they could meet in person, but Hermione hadn’t wanted to leave Harry on the off chance his mood changed wildly or he needed something. Skeeter had given Hermione priority since she had such a high profile case, so Hermione could choose almost any time and day. Then, if she needed to release the news of the Smelt she could go to her previous residence and undergo her plan.

With a sigh, she tuned back into the argument and put her hand on Sirius’s shoulder, making him pause mid-sentence.

“It’ll be okay, Sirius, you’ll be there to help Harry deal with the Dursleys.” He looked at her for a moment, then took a deep breath before nodding reluctantly.

“Fine, but I’m not leaving Harry’s side, Dumbledore.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything else of you. You are a great godfather, just as protective and loyal as James told me you would be.” He looked at them in turn, the twinkle in his eyes slightly dimmed. “I don’t like how the Dursley’s treat him, but it is nothing compared to how Voldemort would treat Harry if he was caught without protection. We have until next week, so you have the weekend to explain the situation, Sirius. I assume Remus and Hermione will help when needed, of course.”

After going over the plan, Remus, Sirius, and Hermione were left alone. It was Friday night, so there was no use explaining anything to Harry now. Plus, he was probably in his room getting ready to sleep already. Hermione sighed. She would have her meeting with Skeeter Monday and visit her parents afterward. She hoped she wouldn’t have to do anything with them before the end of summer, but if they needed to publicize their triad she knew her parents would never be safe.

“Would you guys like some tea?” Hermione looked to see Remus in front of the kettle, already being heated on the stove. She smiled slightly at the way he tended to do the smallest things the muggle way, most likely due to his mother. She nodded gratefully at him and sat down, Sirius following. As they waited for the tea to be ready, Sirius put his hand on hers, and Remus went to rest against the counter in front of them.

“You know, I’ve never really thought I’d start a relationship knowing we would work out before,” Hermione quipped, gently smiling at Remus. He noted that her eyes were the soft caramel he adored, a slight shine on them as if she were overwhelmed with emotion. He reached over to push a curl behind her ear, a parody of what Ron did before, then turned back to prepare the tea.

“We haven’t either, kitten,” Sirius spoke, his thumb tracing circles on her skin. “We can take everything at your pace, you know. We’ll do anything you need.” Hermione looked at him and nodded, before laughing a bit.

“I was going to say we could start with a date, but this is basically a night at Puddifoot’s, without the garish pink.” Remus and Sirius chuckled.

“To be fair, this is still a bit of a garish place, just in a different way,” Remus commented, setting down their tea. He moved to sit down on the other side of Hermione, and they enjoyed their tea in relative silence. When they finished, Hermione asked a variety of questions about their lives, and when they finally decided to sleep, she felt exceedingly happy over finally feeling like a part of her soulmates’ lives, but even more than that, she was overjoyed that they surprised her by softly kissing her in turn in lieu of a goodbye.

* * *

By Monday, Harry had reluctantly packed enough clothing for a week, storing the pink leash and collar on top. He wished he didn’t have to go, but at least Sirius would be there to keep him company. As he thought about it, he decided to pack some cards and their Exploding Snap, and maybe he could get Sirius to scare Dudley into letting them play some video games.

While he waited in his room for Sirius to be ready, Hermione and Remus gathered around the counter to say goodbye to him privately. Hermione had stayed up the previous night preparing herself for her leave, and had made some of her charmed Galleons, so she could keep in touch with Sirius quickly without using a Patronus. As she hugged him tightly, she spoke.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay, Sirius? The bond will hurt, you know.” He shook his head lightly, pulling back to smile at her softly.

“You’ve only explained it to me a hundred times, kitten.” He cupped her cheek gently and kissed the top of her forehead before continuing. “Now that we’re aware of it, we’ve awoken the bond and it wants us to seal it.” She looked up at him and kissed his cheek before moving away, back to Remus. They had spent part of the weekend working on their affection and any awkwardness associated with it, but Hermione still couldn’t help but redden whenever Sirius showed how surprisingly soft he could be.

“I’ve made some charmed Galleons coded to each other so we can send messages quickly. I’ve placed a nick on the face so you can tell it apart from your other currency, please don’t lose it. It’ll warm up when a message needs to be read, so when you get back I’ll make a bracelet to hold it against your wrist.” She handed one to Remus first, hand lingering a bit longer than strictly necessary, before handing one to Sirius, hugging him again. “I have to get ready for my meeting, so I’ll see you in a week. I’m going to say goodbye to Harry quickly and pop you a message when you can go.”

Running up the stairs quickly, she knocked on Harry’s door, leaving Remus a moment to say goodbye. As she wished Harry a good time—well, as good as it could be with the Dursleys, anyways—Remus turned to clasp Sirius’s shoulder.

“Sure you’ll be able to do without her for a week?” Sirius groaned, shaking his head.

“She’ll be the death of me, Moony. I’ve never known someone like her.” Before he could continue, he felt the Galleon heat up, and glanced down to see that instead of it being a message that he could go up, it was instead a message that Harry was coming down instead, impatient with the wait. When he arrived, luggage in hand, Remus moved to him.

“I’ll see you soon, Harry. Be safe.” And with a hug, they were gone.


	7. Chapter 6: Hello, Rita

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! :)

Hermione sighed, fighting against her curls for a moment before admitting defeat and throwing it into a messy bun. She mentally triple-checked her list of things to pack for her outing today, just a small amount of belongings she put into her charmed bag. She trailed her fingertips gently along the beads, thinking over its creation just after the fight at the Ministry. She spent ages working out the undetectable extension charm, just in case it was needed one day. However…  _ This won’t do for the Ministry,  _ Hermione realized. It was a bit ratty, well-worn—it had been gifted to her by her father when she was a child, after all.

Sighing once again, she took everything out of the bag and filled a messenger bag with her belongings instead. She hesitated, though; she needed a reminder of her family, so she caved in and placed her beaded bag into the messenger bag as well, empty as could be. She glanced at her ensemble in the full-length mirror across the room, and charmed the bag to be a chicer black purse, matching her dress robes. She knew that her hair didn’t match her attire, but she quite frankly didn’t care. Getting a fitted robe and dress mailed via owl was hard enough without her panicking over something she couldn’t change, so she finished her outfit with a simple golden necklace her mother sent for her thirteenth birthday and went downstairs to say goodbye to Remus.

Stepping into the parlour, Hermione saw Remus reading the book about bonding, probably trying to find more information about their Smelt. She knew she couldn’t sneak up on him, but she figured she could pretend. She walked behind the couch Remus was sitting at and placed her arms atop his shoulders and rested her chin on his head.

“Enjoying your reading, love?” He made a sound of content before closing the book and placing it on the table beside him and placing his hands on hers.

“Not as much as you would, I’d imagine,” he turned a bit to look at her as she began to move off him and pulled her onto the couch over the back. She shrieked slightly before laughing as he caught her, shaking her head as she leaned into him.

“I have to go, Remus!”

“Can’t I have a minute? We haven’t spent much time alone,” he murmured, hand trailing the slightly exposed part of her collarbone, making her shiver.

“What’s up with you today?” Despite her best efforts, she stuttered slightly. He kissed her cheek quickly.

“Sirius said something just before he left,” he placed a kiss on her neck as he spoke. “Moony’s wanted you all day… we want to claim you.” Hermione moaned softly, hand tightening on his forearm. She fuzzily remembered reading that Remus could be put into a… mood, you could say, when either she herself was aroused or Sirius and her were together, but she didn’t read about anything caused by words alone. But of course, it was an antiquated book, and perhaps he just simply needed it to be  _ her.  _ But with a quick nip to her shoulder she was brought out of her thoughts with a gasp. “It would be so easy, just a quick bite and then you’d beg to spread your legs for me. I can  _ smell  _ you, love.” He placed his other hand on her thigh, and began kissing up her neck.

Hermione was in pure bliss. She knew she needed to do something, but was it  _ really  _ important? She tried swimming through her now fuzzy thoughts, and gasped. It was important, she needed to see Skeeter. She clumsily grabbed her wand from her robe pocket, struggling to focus as Remus continued kissing and nipping at her gently, most likely leaving a mark. She cast a Tempus charm and realized she had just about five minutes before she really needed to leave. She turned to straddle him loosely and pressed her lips against his. After a minute, she pulled away and summoned a mirror to them. Her lips were plumped and she had hickeys trailed down her neck. She flushed even more than she already was, and quickly glamored her neck and smiled at him quickly.

“As much as I enjoyed that, I do have to leave, Remus. I’ll be back in a bit and we can cuddle a bit. Or…” Hermione smirked slightly and stroked him over his trousers twice. “We can continue, if you’d really like.” Hearing him whine a bit, she looked into his golden eyes and cupped his face gently. “I’m sorry, Moony. You’ll have me soon enough.” She got up and walked to the front door so she could apparate to the Ministry. As she felt the pull of her transport, she thought that even though things were going fast, Remus and Sirius were her Smelts, and she knew she loved them even if she hadn’t told them yet.

* * *

“Miss Granger, what a pleasure,” Rita’s voice was as syrupy sweet as ever, dripping with a false kindness that never ceased to irritate Hermione.

“Mrs. Skeeter, I’m glad you could fit me into your schedule. I know you must be rather busy.” As much as Hermione hated this false politeness, she knew how to play the game; after all, there was a reason she was nearly sorted into Slytherin or Ravenclaw instead.

“Call me Rita, dear. Anything for part of the Golden Trio, especially one with such a juicy story. Let me just pull out my quill…” Hermione raised a hand and reached into her bag.

“That won’t be necessary, I already have one going.” She pulled out her parchment and quill, already spelled to transcribe the conversation exactly. Rita grimaced slightly before recovering.

“Of course, Hermione—I can call you that, right?” She continued on without waiting for a response. “Now, let’s talk about Sirius, review, you could say. Harry’s godfather, right? Escaped criminal that murdered the Potter family? But… you’re saying he’s not a criminal, and he never even received a trial. How do you explain what he said on the scene? That was practically a confession.”

“Sirius convinced Lily and James Potter to use Peter Pettigrew as their secret keeper instead of him, and as a result convinced himself that he caused their deaths due to Pettigrew’s betrayal. Additionally, Sirius never was given a trial and could never prove his innocence.”

“I see… However, that’s not enough to show that he didn’t do it. The lack of a trial will definitely cause a splash, but he could still be easily proven guilty, an  _ imperius  _ or deceit could have caused Pettigrew to give the Potter resident’s location to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I’ll write the article, but I can’t say he’s innocent.” Hermione winced. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to do this.

“I have information that can prove his innocence.” When Rita’s greedy eyes widened, Hermione quickly continued. “I just need to check with some people to make sure it can be disclosed. Can I be excused for a moment, please?”

“Yes, Hermione… there’s a room to the left for some privacy.” With a nod, she left the room and pulled out her charmed Galleon. She placed her wand on its face and sent, “ _ Urgent: Publicizing Smelt will clear Sirius. Is that okay?”  _ After receiving approval, she messaged Sirius and told him to tell Harry when he got a chance, then went back to tell Rita.

“Got your approval, dear?” Hermione steeled herself against the soon-to-come questions and general excitement.

“Yes, Rita. I… I know that Sirius is innocent because he is part of my Smelt.” She raised a hand again to silence Rita before continuing. “As you know, Smelts cannot be formed with anyone with a corrupted soul, which could be caused by intentional betrayal, cold murder, and a variety of other things. If Sirius had betrayed the Potters or killed Peter  _ after  _ allegedly betraying them, we would not be bonded. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go finish up my business for the day.” With that, Hermione got up, placed the parchment on Rita’s desk, and nodded her goodbye to the gobsmacked Rita.

As she headed to the apparation point, Hermione struggled to keep her expression composed. She wished she wouldn’t have to do this, but her parents would never be safe now that her Smelt was going to be public. Pulling out her coin again, she messaged Remus: “ _ Heading to my family, be back in a bit.”  _ Pocketing her coin and taking off her dress robe to blend in with the muggles better, she raised her head and with a pop, she was off to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go, a bit of fun to preface what's to come :)


	8. Chapter 7: Hermione Says Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in a while! I ended up getting a bit sick and got behind on all my classwork, so that was an ordeal. Anyways, a commenter asked for a bit more information on the timeline so far, and I incorrectly said they have known about the smelt for weeks. This is because summer break is three months long where I live, but it ended up being closer to two months at Hogwarts, meaning that the Smelt has been known about for about a week. I mention how many weeks they've been on break in this chapter, too :)

Hermione landed in the corner of the Granger residence’s backyard, just shielded by the shed enough to ensure she wouldn’t be seen. She sighed quickly before checking her bag, ensuring she had what she needed. She began to walk to the backdoor before pausing quickly; what would her cover be? It’s only been three weeks since school ended, and she wasn’t due home for another three. It wasn’t too important what she said, but she didn’t want them to be suspicious of her the entirety of her visit, especially since she wasn’t going to be seeing them again in the foreseeable future.

She supposed it would be easy enough to simply say she was a bit homesick and wanted to stop by to say hello and check in on them. Plus, she would have to reinforce the runes she set into place around their house, it wouldn’t do to have a wizard set foot in here and reveal her plan before it was complete. Confident that she had the events of this visit fleshed out enough, she approached her backdoor, taking a deep, steadying breath before going up the steps and knocking.

“Hermione, is that really you?” The door opened to Mr. Granger’s smiling face, eyes crinkled at the corners.  _ God, I’ll miss that,  _ Hermione thought, suddenly tearing up a little. Willing herself not to cry, she let herself get pulled into a hug, laughing a little bit.

“No dad, it's just your  _ other  _ magic daughter,” she joked, pulling away from him so they could walk into their kitchen.

“Of course, how could I ever forget?” Shaking his head, he set the kettle to boil and called for his wife before settling against the counter across Hermione. “What brings you here, hun? We thought you were planning on coming over in about a month?” Before Hermione could answer, they heard a gasp from behind her, and Hermione quickly found herself thrown into another hug, this time from her mother flinging her arms around her sitting form.

“Well,” Hermione began, putting her hand up to her mother’s arm, “I missed you guys. A lot has happened since school ended and I wanted to check-in, you know?” She shook her head lightly as her mum pulled her away from the counter and to the living room while the kettle sounded, letting her dad make the tea for the family. While her dad set the teacups and the various additions on a tray to carry into the living room, Hermione got to catch up on what the Granger family had been up to in her absence. As expected, it was, of course, not very much. Hermione always forgot how seemingly mundane adult muggle life seemed, even though her parents seemed to glow with the brightness that comes from a full life. Hermione was dragged from her thoughts by her dad setting the tea down at the coffee table in front of her, and her mother asking her a question.

“Is everything okay in the magic world?” Hermione hesitated for a minute. Of course she never told her parents about Voldemort or any of her near-death experiences, but she did want to share what she could. Plus, just like many children, Hermione wanted her family to know about and be happy for her relationships, so…  _ I guess I have to tell them,  _ she thought.

“Yeah, just a lot of stuff happening with my life I didn’t expect,” Hermione laughed quietly, more due to her discomfort than any humor that could potentially be found. At her parents' concerned faces, she quickly continued. “What do you guys know about soulmates?”

* * *

After a somewhat lengthy conversation (roughly an hour and a half of Hermione rephrasing the same information with a little bit of new information thrown in), she had received her parents somewhat hesitant blessings. To be fair, though, it wasn’t like they could exactly argue with the natural forces of magic. With that out of the way, Hermione excused herself, saying she needed to reinforce the runes she placed and add in some warding spells now that she was of age. After kissing her parent’s foreheads, she went outside with her bag while her parents started the telly.

First, she double-checked the runes, making sure the magic still held and the carvings weren’t getting worn. With those fixed as needed and set back into place, she moved back to the apparation point and cast wards to ensure that only those she keyed into the wards could enter, namely herself and her parents. After that, she placed similar wards on both the back and front doors. Lastly, she thought back on her mental list and reinforced her wards with some general protective spells.

With everything in place, Hermione stood in front of her front door, thinking of what she had to do. As a tear fell down her cheek, she cast disillusionment and silencing charms on herself and silently opened the door. She went to her parents' bedroom first, the first door upstairs. The desk drawers held all of the Grangers’ important documents, from birth certificates to passports. Biting back tears, Hermione began working, her wand moving as Mr. and Mrs. Granger became Wendell and Monica Wilkins, a childless couple that had saved up to an early retirement in Australia, or perhaps a dentistry practice if they got bored.

She gently picked up the evidence of her left, her passport and birth certificate. With a bitter smile, she placed them into her beaded bag; she simply couldn’t bear to part with her family entirely just yet. She then took out the cash she stored, all her savings. She stored it in an empty manilla folder left on the desk, along with the Wilkins’ passport, and stuck a stamp of Australia on the top, which her mother often did, appreciating the charm of it. Dabbing at her eyes a bit, Hermione left the room and gently closed the door.

Next, her own room. The door next to her parents’ one. She didn’t quite want to go in and see what she was losing, so she made a quick decision and settled for placing some mild muggle-repelling charms and a glamor to add in some wear to the door. She would make it so that her parents thought of it as a half-abandoned storage room. With the big things finished, she went into the remaining parts of the house and glamored any family portraits to remove herself. Now… she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. It was time to say goodbye to the Grangers and hello to the Wilkins.

She pulled out the glass vials she stored in her messenger bag and walked behind her parents. She quietly called forth her parents memories of her (muggle minds were scarily easy to manipulate), and extracted the most important highlights into her vials one by one, until she was left with a bagful of memories. Then, with her silent apologies, she obliviated her parents and replaced their memories of her with memories of the Wilkins. Steeling herself, she removed her silencing and disillusionment, then walked to the coffee table and picked up the tray containing their three empty cups.

“Thanks for inviting me over before you left, Mrs. Wilkins,” Hermione said, trying not to stare at her parents’ blank eyes.

“Do… do we know you?”

“Yes, Mr. Wilkins. I’m going to be renting this house once you leave for Australia. You said you don’t have the tickets just yet but we arranged for me to move in on the first of September.” Hermione quickly smiled and left to the kitchen before she lost her composure, and put the cups in the sink before writing her name and email on the notepad her mother kept on the side of the fridge. Walking back to the living room, she told them where she left her contact information and wished them well in Australia as they walked her to the front door.

Finally alone in front of her childhood home, her composure broke. She let out a sob as she walked to the park she frequented as a child. When she arrived, she sat down, crying on the bench her parents used to sit at while she played. Half an hour later, her tears finally began to slow, and she went to a nearby alley to glamor her face into a sense of normality and apparate to what was now her only home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad days :/


	9. Chapter 8: Remus and Hermione

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit longer since I've left this without an update for a while! The good news is that I only have two more exams and after that I'm done with school until September, so I should be able to write more. Let me know what you think :)

With a pop, Hermione was on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place. Taking a deep breath and steeling herself for seeing Remus, she opened the front door and stepped in. Of course, Crookshanks was sat in the entrance hall, greeting her with a meow before brushing against her leg and running into the parlor room where Remus presumably was. She let out a laugh that came out more as a sigh due to the day’s stress, and went in to greet one of her mates.

She found Remus sitting on one of the sofas, fireplace lit and book in hand. At the sound of her footsteps, he looked up at her and smiled softly, his eyes lighting up with a hint of gold before going back to normal. As she looked to the bookcase beside the fireplace (although it was a much smaller collection than in the library, it was filled with “every day” reads and unfinished books she had placed there), Remus began to talk.

“How was your day, love?” She quickly grabbed the book she was looking for and sat next to him, leaning against him heavily.

“Long,” she told him. “Long and tiring, and I keep feeling like something is going to happen this week.” He thought for a moment, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to pull her closer. He quickly dismissed telling her of the irony of her having premonitions considering her dislike of divination, instead answering her seriously.

“Maybe it has to do with Sirius and Harry?” Hermione shifted slightly before nodding a bit and letting him continue. “I wouldn’t be surprised if our bonds with each other have strengthened since we’ve begun to connect with each other more, perhaps Harry isn’t taking us well, if Sirius has already told him.” She froze for a moment, she hadn’t wanted to think about Harry’s reaction, and having to quickly realize that there was a high probability that he wouldn’t be particularly happy with their soul bonds was shocking. Sensing her distress, Crookshanks jumped up to accompany her and Remus on the couch, paw on her lap. Stroking him gently, she adjusted to look up at Remus and kissed his jaw quickly.

“I hope not, I don’t know how living with him will be when he’s already temperamental enough.” Remus chuckled slightly, nodding his head in agreement. Before he could speak though, his stomach growled, making them both laugh, Hermione’s tension broken.

“I guess we should get you some food, love.” She thought quickly, realizing the date. “The moon is on Thursday, isn’t it?” She made a note to get her mandrake leaves out so that they were easily accessible, she needed to make sure that she didn’t miss her chance this month. Getting up, she began to walk to the kitchen (even though Crookshanks missed his paw rest), calling back as she did, “Extra rare, yes?”

“Of course, love, how did you know?” After putting their books away Remus gave Crookshanks a quick pet, grateful that he had learned to trust the werewolf scent, and went to accompany Hermione in the kitchen. While she made dinner, they made some small talk, and, once it was ready, Remus gave her a sly smile before pulling out a bottle of firewhiskey from a small, hidden-away drawer. “You did say you had a long day, Hermione.” At her shock, he raised a hand, quietly asking to be let to continue. “Sirius likes to think he’s hidden this well, but of course I would find such a strongly scented drink.”

Shaking her head, a mix of amused and shocked, she grabbed two glasses from the cabinet and placed them next to him. As she moved closer to him, she quickly brushed her hand against his back pockets (she was always amused by the fact that he wore muggle jeans just a little too tight) before holding onto his waist, pretending she didn’t notice the slight jump he made in response to her touch. She kissed his cheek quickly before moving to make their plates, smiling as she heard him pour their drinks out a few moments later.

“Want to sit at the actual dinner table today, or will the counter do?”

“The counter feels a bit closer, doesn’t it?” Nodding her head, she placed the plates down on the counter and grabbed utensils for them while Remus placed the drinks next to them and sat down. When she sat, she turned slightly to more easily talk to Remus and noticed that his glass was filled more than hers.  
“What's up with that, Remus?” Hermione somewhat indignantly pointed at his glass, to which he smiled at her just slightly too sweetly.

“Even though we’re equals, you’re still too young to be an alcoholic—we have Sirius for that, unfortunately.”

“I am of age, you know.”

“Yes, but we both know muggle research indicates that your brain shouldn’t have much alcohol until it's fully developed in your mid-twenties.” Shaking her head at him, she let it go, finding it more endearing than frustrating, especially considering she didn’t  _ really  _ want to drink much. Changing the subject, they talked about their respective recent reading and some other things until dinner was finished.

After cleaning, they continued talking over drinks until they were just a bit tipsy (they were both slow drinkers, they found) and too tired to think. Hermione’s room was the one closest to the stairs, so she made a quick decision and pulled him in as he began walking away; she needed to be held right now, especially with the day she’s had.

* * *

Each day played out similarly to the first, just with them staying in the entire day. Sometimes Remus cooked, sometimes Hermione played the piano in one of the smaller rooms that used to be used for small parties of people, but every evening they read together and, unlike the first night, they parted for bed. It was almost perfect, but missed the spunk Sirius brought into their lives. However, before Hermione could ruminate on that much, unfortunately, Thursday came.

As soon as Hermione woke up—early, of course—she sent over a message on her charmed galleon:  _ Are you coming over tonight for Moony?  _ While she pretended not to notice the stress of the approaching moon of Remus, she was worried. He had been taking the wolfsbane as normal, but his eyes still appeared more sunken and he was more fatigued. They had been going to sleep earlier and earlier, although Remus didn’t notice it. As she thought over her worries and her list of supplies to keep for the morning, she felt the galleon warm already; Sirius was already awake too, probably just as worried as Hermione, if not more.

_ I wouldn’t miss a moon for the world, kitten.  _ She smiled at the pet name, and messaged back,  _ I’ll make some extra food for you, love.  _ Getting up for the day and stretching, she cast a Tempus charm and cringed when she realized it was earlier than normal for her. What was she supposed to do until she made breakfast (she liked the structure of making food at exactly 8 a.m.)? Sighing, she decided to set out what she’d need in next month for her personal project: a silver teaspoon, a black vial filled with dew free of light or human contact, a Death’s-head Hawk Moth chrysalis, and a crystal vial that had been cleansed with pure moonlight.

Afterward, she read a bit before making breakfast, placing extra sausages on Remus’s plate before bringing it up for him. After placing a gentle kiss on his forehead and asking him to rest up after eating, she researched in the library until lunch. Around that time, Remus was up and in the parlor room, trying to tidy up a little bit despite feeling (and looking) ill. When Hermione came downstairs and saw him, he was promptly mothered into going upstairs into the clean library and laying down on the sofa there while she made them a quick meal.

Placing the plate down on the table next to him, Hermione sat across in the armchair next to him and began eating. Once they finished, Remus shyly asked if she could play the piano while he rested, which she agreed to after hesitating slightly. After this, and the rest of a quiet day of mothering one of her mates, Sirius finally arrived and nightfall began to set in. Hugging her mates goodbye, she let them go off into the warded dungeon-like room underground and went into her bedroom.

Settling in the middle of her room. Hermione looked into the eyes of her reflection. She refused to let this worry consume her; she had endured years of panicking over Harry, she could endure a night of Remus’s pain. She knew it hurt more since he didn’t have her there, and that it would make Moony more frantic (thank Merlin for wolfsbane), so she let determination fill her. She would not make Remus and Sirius spend more moons alone than they have to. With that thought in mind, she took a deep breath, went to her desk, and placed the waiting mandrake leaf into her mouth as the sun fell below the horizon.


	10. Chapter 9: Unorthodox Methods for Helping Werewolves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally done with my exams!

After a remarkably fitful and horrendous night, Hermione woke up to her wand alerting her to the fact that it was the crack of dawn. She groaned for a moment before remembering why she set her alarm and shot out of bed. She knew she wouldn’t be able to go down and help Remus just yet, but she wanted to keep her new project out of their minds for as long as possible—they were already stressed enough as it is without the knowledge that she was planning to undergo a potentially dangerous transformation, in her opinion. So, she moved in front of the mirror and practiced a few phonetics and inspected how noticeable the mandrake leaf was.

To her delight, the mandrake leaf was almost unnoticeable if she kept it under her tongue or stuck between her gums and cheek. With one last look to herself, she glanced out the window and noted that it was finally time for her to attend to Remus, even if he was reluctant to let her. She had her supplies at the ready, in a case that would roll-out to allow immediate access. She went down the stairs, case and wand in hand, and gently knocked on the warded door before undoing them and going inside.

Closing the door with a gentle click, Hermione saw Sirius covering Remus with a blanket, his figure shivering slightly.

“How was the moon tonight,” Hermione quietly asked while approaching them and kneeling by Remus’s side. As she unrolled her case, Sirius told her it was easier than without the wolfsbane, but a bit rougher than he thought. Nodding slightly, she asked him to go upstairs and make some food and rest—"You’ve had a long night, Sirius, you need to regain some energy and rest up.” He hesitated for a moment before agreeing, leaving Hermione and Remus alone.

She placed her hand on Remus’s cheek and carefully leaned down to place a kiss on his forehead. With this, his eyes fluttered open and he looked up at her with a weak smile. “How are you doing, love?”  
“Moony missed you, he kept yelling at me which made it a bit hard to relax for the transformation.” She nodded quietly, then gestured to the blanket, a silent question to lower it.

“Hopefully soon he won’t be missing me, Remus,” she smiled at him while pulling the blanket down to rest at his hips. She frowned slightly at the wounds she saw, but was happy enough that it appeared to be only those from a stiffer transformation than normal. Not wanting to alert him to her distaste of his pain, she quickly fixed her expression and continued with what she was doing, pulling dittany out of the case to apply to his body.

The two had small talk for a little while she trailed her application from his shoulders down. A lot of his chest wounds were already healed, his body expending the majority of its energy to quickly repair the rips that form from the skin stretching past its limits. She lost herself in the almost meditative action of applying dittany to his wounds; there weren’t a lot of large wounds (except around the joints), but there were a lot of small tears Hermione insisted upon treating.

However, she was quickly brought out of her zoned-out state when she reached the edge of the blanket and heard him gasp. She initially tensed, worried she hurt him, until she realized it was a gasp of  _ pleasure.  _ She inwardly smirked slightly and pretended to ignore the slight tenting forming under the blanket.

“Can I work on your legs, now, love?” He gave his approval, only stuttering slightly, so Hermione proceeded to raise the blanket up until all that was covered was his member, the fabric at his hips bunched up to about an inch in width. As with before, they talked while she worked her way up to his center. Deciding to take a chance, Hermione glanced up and asked him to spread his legs a little bit more.

He spluttered momentarily (she responded rather innocently to that with “How else will I treat your thighs?”) but acquiesced, opening his legs further and exposing a hint of his cock to Hermione. She reached under the blanket slightly, brushing against him and making him groan quietly.

“I don’t think there’s anything there to heal, you know.”

“Perhaps, but do you want me to stop?” He groaned again and shook his head. At his response, she moved to pumping his member, recalling what she’d overheard some of the boys in school mentioned when she was out of sight. She didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but she did love learning.

“You could take it off, if you’d like,” he managed to moan out after a minute. With that, she eagerly moved the blanket off him and felt a flood of wetness at the sight of his cock in her hand, weeping with need. She adjusted herself so she was laying beside him and pressed her lips to his. He eagerly returned the kiss, moaning into her lips as she swept her thumb over his tip. “I’ve wanted you so bad this week, you know.” He moved to sweep kisses down her jawline.

“Still need to claim me, love?” She moaned back as he hit a sweet spot, making her clench her hand slightly.

“ _ Yes, _ ” he hissed back as she continued stroking him and ducked her head slightly to reclaim his lips for a moment.

“I’ve been thinking about it, you know,” she began in-between kisses. “You biting down on my shoulder, making me yours forever.” He practically growled at this, so she continued. “Perhaps Sirius could share me while you do, making me moan more and more until you both are finished.” She continued with a few more phrases before he called out that he was close, fisting her hair and pulling her even closer while she finished him.

“Hey, I made us breakfa-” She jumped at Sirius’s voice, and Sirius took in the scene of Remus cumming while a flushed Hermione with kiss-swollen lips stared at him in surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written this kind of scene before, let me know if there's anything you think I could improve and what you think in general :)


	11. Chapter 10: Breakfast Time

An awkward, silent change of clothes for Remus and a trip up the stairs and into the kitchen later, and Hermione and Remus were settled on the counter stools while Sirius set out breakfast. Hermione couldn’t help but break eye contact with her partners and blushed profusely whenever Sirius spoke to her. Of course, Sirius was all brow waggles and smirks, provoking her into blushing and stuttering or making Remus choke on his food.

“Would you like some coffee, love? We can make it extra creamy if you’d give us a  _ hand. _ ” Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head while answering. She always thought she wouldn’t be so abashed about sex, especially with those who will soon be part of her soul, but she found herself shy, as if she had been caught stealing a book from the library. Yes, she didn’t do anything wrong, and Sirius clearly wasn’t upset, but she felt like she should be including both of them. She resolved herself; she had been with Remus alone for nearly five days now, why wouldn’t she be more amorous with him?

“Can I have some of your sugar, Hermione?” This was his fourth or fifth innuendo in the past half hour or so, making Hermione scowl at him despite the slight blush and flicked her wand, silently making the sugar bowl fly to him before landing in his coffee cup.

“Maybe in a week or so, Sirius,” she looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes. “I find that I enjoyed sleeping with Remus even once enough to want to help him.” Remus choked on his coffee at that, coughing a little bit and beating at his chest slightly. Since he needed to heal quickly, he had practically scarfed down his meal (which was filled with enough food for two), and had been instead sipping on his coffee and listening to Sirius banter while they finished. She reached a soothing hand over to rub his shoulder for a minute, then stood up.

“Are you done eating, love?” At his quick nod, she beamed at him. “I should take a look at your back soon, can you meet me in my room?” He hesitated for a moment, then agreed, getting up and walking upstairs.

“What’s all this about, kitten,” Sirius asked, gesturing at the kitchen they were now alone in with a gentle smile that made Hermione swoon just a little, although she’d never admit it.

“I want to make sure you’re actually okay.” She moved to be closer to him and put her hand on his forearm. “It’s okay to be jealous or upset or something, you know,” she told him, placing a kiss on his cheek. To her surprise, he leaned into her kiss for a moment before pulling her closer.

“It’s cute that you think I’d be jealous, kitten,” he placed his hand on her cheek, letting her lean into him before continuing. “If you really need to know, you made me  _ incredibly  _ hard—” Hermione gasped and bit her lip while he pressed on—“I placed a glamour to hide how much I’m straining against my trousers. She chanced a glance down and saw that, yes, there was a glimmer of magic against the crotch of his jeans, and she felt a rush of warmth spread from her core.

“I’m glad Remus had time with you first, too,” he murmured against her cheek, beginning to place soft open-mouthed kisses against her jawline. “I’m proud of him, and if we’re being completely honest…” He lightly nipped at her, enjoying her breathing getting heavier as blood rushed to her cheeks. “I like to watch.” He heard her sharply inhale, and smirked against the point of her jawline just below her ear. Then, he pulled back a bit, ignoring her moan of dismay.

“Is this okay, kitten?” Her eyes, previously closed, fluttered open as she took heavy breaths. She nodded and pressed her forehead against his sternum, letting him wrap his arms around her.

“I’m happy you aren’t worried,” she turned her head so she could hear his slightly accelerated heartbeat. “But are you sure the kitchen is the right place to expose yourself for me?” During his exploration of her sensitive spots, her magic festered until, out of her control, it dispelled the magic around her, including his glamor which revealed a slightly larger than usual bulge that was now pressed against Hermione. He paused for a moment before realizing what she must have meant before giving her a slightly shy smile.

“As long as it’s just us…” His smile turned into a grin. “And I’ll tolerate Remus seeing as he’s one of our soulmates,  _ I guess. _ ” With that, Hermione laughed and smiled at him, and he found herself lost in her honeyed hazel eyes, bright with joy.

“Thank Merlin I won’t need to split my nights in two beds, then, love,” she placed a kiss on his cheek, then moved to his lips. “I really do need to check on Remus’s back, though, we got a bit…”

“Distracted, I know.” He beamed at her quickly before placing a heavier kiss on her lips, which she quickly let him deepen. Already pressed against her, he moved them so that she was pressed against the counter, allowing her to be lifted up to sit on it. She moved an arm around his neck, pulling him closer and letting her hold the back of his head (mostly his shaggy hair, if you’re being honest) while he held her waist. While they kissed, Hermione searched the counter for her wand, leading to her accidentally knocking over the sugar.

Flinching from surprise, they separated, allowing Hermione to quickly locate her wand and repair the sugar and lift it back onto the counter. Sirius, still trying to recover from the shock of being interrupted, looked at her in shock as she hopped off the counter and kissed him, before saying that Remus was waiting for her and that she’d look forward to “talking” again later.

Watching her leave (and admiring the view from behind), he shook his head and sighed. As he thought of how quickly he had grown so attached to her, he knew that she would be the life and death of him… until he remembered Harry and how he had yet to tell him of his new relationship. I mean, how do you tell your godson that you’re dating his best friend who’s also dating your best friend, anyway? He realized just how absurd that sounds, especially since he wouldn’t be opposed to getting with Remus and they’re all actually soulmates, and groaned. Hermione may be his life, but certainly might not be the death of him if Harry’s temper got him first. As he pulled out his cigarettes to have a smoke outside, he only thought one thing.

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Have any of you guys finished any books recently? I'm trying to read at least fifty published novels today in addition to the fanfiction I already write :)


	12. Chapter 11: Apparently Unorthodox Solutions Work

Back in Hermione’s room, Remus was atop her bed, face properly smushed in one of her pillows. As she opened the door, her scent filled the room, and Remus could tell that Sirius had gotten a bit heated with her—or perhaps it was the other way around. That was one thing Remus had come to realize more and more, that while she was somewhat shy and most likely new to sex, she wasn’t afraid of being brazen on occasion.

“Hello there, love,” Hermione gently said before kneeling on the bed next to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s take a look at your back, I should’ve healed it instead of getting distracted earlier.” At that she moved her hand down to the bottom hem of his shirt, pausing for a moment as if asking for permission.

“It’s okay, Hermione,” he hummed lightly after turning his head to the side, Hermione’s hand gliding up his back while she slowly lifted the shirt. “I haven’t been feeling much pain there, and my shirt hasn’t gotten sticky with blood yet so I’m sure that’s a good sign.” He smiled to himself, finding the tragedy of it almost amusing at this point of life. But then Hermione gasped and his smile quickly fell and he tried to get up, but didn’t want to risk pushing her off the bed.

“You’re right,” she said, after regaining her composure. She placed a hand between his shoulder blades and laughed, although her laugh was one of disbelief, almost a break in sanity after being pushed too far. Remus wondered why that would be, she had seemed a bit more melancholy during the week, but he assumed she missed Sirius and Harry. However, if that was the case, she shouldn’t have been so stressed to the point that whatever discovery made would make her react like this. He would have to ask her what was wrong later, he realized, but now he had to figure out what was going on currently.

“What is it, love?” He turned to lay on his side to face her while her laughter died down. Her outburst had alerted Sirius’s canine-elevated hearing, so by this point he had opened the already slightly-ajar door and walked in, concerned for Hermione like any good partner would be.

“Look, Sirius,” she gestured to Remus’s back. Sirius sighed internally, of course she would maintain herself enough even during what could have easily been a meltdown to stay aware of her surroundings. He supposed it was good considering they were in a war, but he felt bad for her childhood in Hogwarts. He couldn’t focus on his issue with Dumbledore’s school now, though, he figured, as he moved to the other side of Hermione’s bed and looked at what he assumed to be some gruesome scars, since they made her break so easily. But, to his surprise, there was nothing new there.

“What the fuck…”

“What’s going on, guys?” Remus tried to look back at what they were freaking out over, but quickly realized the futility of doing so. “What’s wrong with my back?”

“Nothing,” Hermione smiled at him, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “We just really need to do more research into this damn smelt.” She moved off the bed and let him stand, conjuring a handheld mirror so that he could examine his back. His shoulders and his hips were what he disliked most, when he transformed the majority of the strain went to those areas so that he felt they were deformed beyond saving. So with a deep breath, Remus steeled himself for the sight of even more scars, only to gasp, his grip on the mirror loosening at the lack of newly repaired skin or even minor open wounds.

Before the mirror fell, Hermione spelled the mirror away, so that Remus could focus on himself. He quickly moved to sit on the bed, shock still evident on his face. He turned to look at Hermione and Sirius, who had both moved to stand next to him while he was looking at himself, and smiled widely, like a deaf child hearing for the first time.

“I can’t believe it.” His eyes began to water, causing Hermione to quickly go over and hug him.

“I just don’t understand why…” Although Hermione was excited for Remus, she was largely analytical and couldn’t help but search her mind for a reason that he was healed despite the fact that he wasn’t treated. Sirius moved to sit next to Remus and pulled Hermione from her mildly uncomfortable bent hug to his lap. Before she could protest, he tutted to stop her.

“It could be sex magic.”

Hermione spluttered at that, how could she have used sex magic to fix Remus’s wounds? At that, Sirius continued, as if reading her thoughts.

“The only thing that changed from his normal routine between when he had them and now is him cumming,” he ignored Remus becoming flustered, keeping his tone casual. “Maybe you used some of the unharnessed power of our Smelt bond to heal him, using his body’s arousal as its vessel?” Hermione thought about it for a moment and nodded. She figured that made sense, especially since smelts were researched so little.

“So… what were you thinking about just before I walked in?” At that, Hermione panicked enough that she tried to avoid his gaze, only succeeding in falling off the couch. Talk of sex created a tension when all three of them were together, their bond practically begging to be sealed, but at that, the tension was broken. They laughed and the mood was lightened again, until Sirius remembered that Snuffles had to get back to the Dursleys.

“Shit, I have to go back soon.” Hermione got up from the floor and looked at him sadly. Then, she moved to sit next to Remus.

“We understand, Sirius.” When he got up, Hermione reached out to hold his hand. “We can talk about… that, later. At least you’re coming back on Sunday, just be sure to tell Harry about us by that morning, okay, love?” He nodded and left the room after saying goodbye. Remus noted she seemed to be deliberating something, and shook his head.

“Just go and kiss him already, Hermione.” She jumped a little and flushed, embarrassed to be read so easily, then half-jogged out of the room to catch Sirius before he left, moving into a run down the stairs.

“Wait!” Sirius turned as Hermione tried to slow herself a little, but she ultimately crashed into him, throwing her arms around him. “I really missed you, and I forgot to give you this.” She pressed a kiss to his lips, then moved back. “Enjoy your time with Harry, okay? I lo—I really really care about you, and I’ll look forward to when you come back.”

“I care about you, too, kitten.” With that, he walked down the hall, pausing to pet Crookshanks for a moment, then left the house. Staying in place a moment after he left, Hermione sighed and returned to her room, where Remus was still sitting on her bed. She smiled at him, then threw herself onto the bed, pulling him with her.

“Let’s stay in bed today, Remus, we both deserve it.” She moved closer to him while he showed his consent by using his wand to cover them with a lighter sheet she kept folded at the foot of the bed (werewolves tended to have a warmer body temperature than most). Sighing softly, he smiled down at her smaller form and moved to hold her before letting himself drift off to sleep.


	13. Chapter 12: Welcome Home

Sunday morning began with a bang. Hermione had fallen asleep at her desk, deep in research regarding Smeltings and bonds in general, and had started when a door slamming made Walburga Black begin screaming her distaste at the house’s situation. Hermione groaned, getting up to stretch a bit and work out the kinks in her neck from a night of horrid posture. Worrying about what happened to make someone slam a door (the residents of Grimmauld Place tended to be quiet due to the damn portrait they couldn’t get off), Hermione cautiously opened her bedroom door, wand in hand, coming face to face with… Harry.  _ Oh. _

“What the hell, Hermione!” Harry’s raised voice did nothing to temper Walburga, and the combined effect of both of them gave Hermione a headache.  _ For God’s sake, it’s too early for this. _

“Well good morning to you, too, Harry,” Hermione skirted past him and his luggage and saw Sirius beginning to rush up the stairs to Harry. She ran down, narrowly missing him, and quickly flicked her wand at the portrait to shut her up, then to the kitchen to see if Remus was there, ignoring the sounds of Harry’s heavy steps going downstairs and toward her. She vaguely registered Sirius saying something along the lines of “Harry, let us explain,” but she quite frankly needed more time to prepare herself for the return of Harry’s temperament. She had begun to lose the tension that graced her shoulders when dealing with his changing moods and trauma, and so she wasn’t hardened enough to suddenly go back to helping him cope with himself and his life.

Remus wasn’t in the kitchen, meaning he was either in bed (they had stayed up late discussing potential sixth-year materials for DADA) or in the library. Either way, Harry must have alerted him, so she was bound to run into him on her way to… wherever avoiding Harry’s temper would lead her. As she moved back into the main hallway, however, her plan to wait for him to calm down was put to a stop, as she ended up tripping over some more of Harry’s luggage, presumably what Sirius was helping lug home, allowing him to catch up to her.

“How could you!” Hermione rolled her eyes before lifting herself off the ground.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” she glared at him slightly. “What have I done to warrant this?”

“What have you done,” he roared. “What haven’t you done!” He whipped out his wand (she noticed he abandoned his bags at some point) and was about to cast some kind of spell before she quickly  _ expelliarmus _ ’d him.

“Harry  _ James _ Potter, you need to calm yourself down, this is no way to treat me!”

“No way to treat  _ you,  _ this is no way to treat me!” Hermione registered Sirius looking on somewhat helplessly on the sidelines. “You constantly take away the good things I have, from my broom second year and now my own godfather!”

“I have been the  _ most  _ supportive person you’ve had since we began school, Harry! Remember when even Ron stopped talking to you because of the Triwizard Tournament? Everything I’ve consciously done has been for you and your safety!” She glared at him again, the tips of her hair sparking and eyes golden. “And for your information, I didn’t  _ choose  _ for my soul to be  _ literally  _ bonded to Sirius and Remus, okay? But if I had the choice I still would have chosen them, and if you took the time to calm down and see us together, you would understand that!”

“Bullshit!” He ignored her cry of “Language” and pressed on. “Sirius is the only real family I have, and you’re taking him from me! You weren’t ever supposed to be close to him—”

“We still  _ are  _ your family!”

“No,  _ Sirius  _ is my family, you have your own damn family you should go back to!”

Silence. Hermione heard her heart pound despite that near deafening silence in which tensions rose so high it felt like she could hardly move. She quickly registered Sirius’s expression of shock mixed with conflict—of course he would be conflicted as to who to side with, Harry was his family and Hermione was his soulmate. Her hair deflated somewhat, letting out one last spark before going back to normal, and her eyes grayed to the point of being nearly those of Sirius’s.

“Harry,” she quietly spoke. “You need to think long and hard of what you’ve said to me today.” She saw Harry’s eyes widen, perhaps realizing what he said in the moment. “And,” she hissed this last part, “you know  _ nothing  _ about me or my family.” With that, she turned on her heel to head to the stairs and go to her refuge: the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter than my previous chapters, but I feel this ended nicely, and adding anything else would ruin that finality.


	14. Chapter 13: Admission of Guilt from a (Mostly) Innocent Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know the direction this story is going which sucks because I ended up spending a week a specific scene for maybe a few months in-story from this scene, and this whole story began because I dreamed of the basic premise with a very specific scene that I couldn't get out of my head lol. Which is good! But also terrible because I really want to write those scenes even though I'm in love with the way this story has evolved and I hope you all do too.

Remus was the first to brave through the library’s doors. Hermione’s mood had transformed the room so that it felt dark and foreboding so that even walking past the heavy wood doors made you feel as if you were being choked except on all sides and gravity felt stronger and, you know what’s funny? Harry was the  _ only  _ one who didn’t notice all that much until he tried to touch the door. Of course, Remus found himself the most sensitive to it, as he was technically a “dark” creature, which made him a bit more aware of negative energies.

However, as a result, he could tell that Hermione’s wayward magic wasn’t necessarily harmful, just a distressing combination of anger, sadness, and pain. So, he forced himself not to care about the way Moony snarled at the doors and pushed them open, his eyes searching out her figure. To no one’s surprise, she was curled up in her nook, the messenger bag she left there beside her and a book in hand. Remus  _ was  _ surprised to see a lack of tears, though he noted that her eyes were puffy and her nose was reddened, so he assumed she had gotten the most of her crying out already.

The excess magic that was dripping off of Hermione left the room when Remus opened the door, like opening a floodgate, making her aware of his presence despite how quietly he attempted to open the door. She lifted her head from her reading and pushed a curl out of her face, attempting a smile that meant to reassure Remus but only showed him her hurt. As he stepped closer, she moved her book off her lap and cleared a space beside her for him to sit.

“Need to talk about what’s wrong, love?” Remus placed a hand on her leg as he sat down and let her put her head on his shoulder.

“Something’s wrong with Harry, I’m worried,” She fingered the edge of nightgown, not only worried but also becoming somewhat embarrassed by the realization that she hadn’t changed since she was woken so abruptly.

“No, it’s not just that.” Remus felt Hermione’s jaw opening and quieted her gently. “You’re always worried about Harry, Hermione. Sirius told me what he said about our Smelt, what did he say that was the last straw?” Her shoulders lost the defensive tension they had taken earlier, and supported herself on Remus more heavily.

“He said I was taking Sirius away from him, that I already had my own family and was taking Harry’s away.”

“You must know that you aren’t taking Sirius away, you’re joining his small family, love.” Hermione shook her head.

“It isn’t that, Remus…”

“Then what is it?” Hermione paused, her silence pregnant with guilt and shame.

“I did something horrid, Remus,” she admitted, her now-slate-colored eyes beginning to fill with tears.

“What… what do you mean? I know you, Hermione, you would never do something that bad—” Hermione cut him off, quietly moving off him and placing a hand up. Quietly, with tears falling, she went into her bag and pulled out two labeled vials, filled with a milky substance. Remus’s eyebrows furrowed at the vials simply labeled “M” and “D” before he registered the way the substances felt alive.

“Oh, Hermione…” He had no words, instead gently taking the vials to place them down and let Hermione keep herself against his chest as she began to sob.

“It was the only way I could protect them, Remus… I already painted a huge target on them by being beside Harry, but with our Smelt being publicized I may as well have added neon lights saying ‘Come and get us!” Remus nodded in understanding, moving to soothingly rub her back while holding her despite beginning to feel self-hatred well up within him. Once her sobbing began to calm down, leaving her with her tears and the occasional sniffle, he began to speak.

“If we had never found out about the Smelt you wouldn’t be so hurt… I’m so sorry, Hermione.” At that, Hermione furiously shook her head, fierce despite her stuffy nose and puffy cheeks, and moved herself back to face him

“ _ Never _ say that again, Remus Lupin. I wouldn’t take our relationships away for the world!” Hermione broke slightly, a somewhat hysterical laugh bubbling out of her. “Plus… my parents already said they approved of us despite the power.”

“I’m sorry,  _ what _ ?” Hermione bitterly smiled and looked at him through her tear-soaked lashes.

“I’m just like any other daughter, Remus. I wanted my parents to be happy for us.” Remus looked at her in disbelief before shaking his head a bit, smiling at her gently as he noticed her eyes beginning to warm again, now just slightly cooler than her neutral brown eye color. Hermione felt a weight lifted off her, the burden of hiding her grief was too much to bear. She smiled back and moved onto his lap to hug him properly. “Thank you for being here, Remus, it means a lot.”

“Forever and always, Hermione, as long as you’ll have a silly old wolf around.” Hermione laughed quietly before kissing his cheek.

“I need you around to temper the other old dog in my company, Remus,” Hermione snuggled herself further into the crook of his neck before continuing. “Now, can we just stay here and ignore the others for a bit longer?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so they did just ignore the others for as long as they could until the next chapter :)


	15. Chapter 14: That Afternoon

The Smelt was publicized that day, although none of them read the morning paper until mid-afternoon when they settled in the main room. Rita had, for once, abstained from speculating on the entirely wrong thing, instead directing her questioning toward the administration that allowed Sirius Black to go to Azkaban without a trial.

_ “Readers, while the disappearance of infamous murderer Sirius Black has died down, I have had an exclusive interview with part of the Golden Trio, Hermione Granger. She reached out to me shortly after the Hogwarts term ended, and with her information, we can all be led to believe that Sirius Black may have been framed by Peter Pettigrew, previously believed to be dead…”  _ After reporting on the majority of the information, Skeeter finally mentioned the Smelt, saving the best for last.

_ “As if this information wasn’t enough to raise some  _ serious  _ questions, Ms. Granger shared with me a significant piece of information that essentially clears Sirius Black’s name: he is part of her Smelt. Now, for some of the younger readers, a Smelt is a triad soulmate bond, with some special conditions; none of the members can have tarnished their soul, meaning Black could not have intentionally betrayed the Potter family or killed Pettigrew in cold blood. _

_ “Of course, the Smelt will have to be proved in trial to clear Black’s name. Considering Granger did not disclose the third party in her Smelting, I will be going through and discussing who they could be before the trial. Regarding the inevitable trial, however, Granger commented, ‘I reached out to [Rita] because Sirius Black deserves justice. He has dealt with the pain of being framed for far too long, and Lily and James Potter have had their will ignored. With this information being publicized, our Smelt can openly demand a trial and the reopening of the Potter will so that, not only can Sirius be freed, but so that his guardianship over Harry Potter can be fully recognized and Harry can be given all that was provided by his family.’” _

“Nice touch, Hermione,” Sirius commented after reading the article aloud and doing a terrible impression of Hermione, causing a fit of laughter from both Remus and Hermione. They wished Harry was there to read it with them, but he was still brooding in his room, so they planned to give him the paper later so he could read it himself. With any luck, Harry would at least recognize the way that their Smelting could benefit his relationship with Sirius.

“Hopefully with that quote, we’ll receive a summons for a true trial for you. We’ll need Harry’s and my memories of Pettigrew, and hopefully, Remus can take Harry to get the will. You should be able to open it, right?”

“Of course, kitten, I was meant to open it to begin with, with Dumbledore opening it in case something happened to me… Fuck!”

“What’s wrong, Sirius?” Hermione quickly got up from Remus’s side at his distress, moving to comfort him.

“Why didn’t he open the will? He knew it was there for him, and it said who the secret keeper was!” Hermione’s face sank as she processed that, but her eyes quickly turned a fierce gold, her magic manifesting the overflow of emotion into her appearance.

“Blood protection.” Remus had to hide his surprise at the intense coldness coming from her voice as a scowl set in, instead nodding as he understood what she meant. “He  _ wanted  _ Harry to be with the Dursleys, he knew you wouldn’t let him stay with them if you had a say in anything.”

“Hopefully,” Remus began, trying to de-escalate the tension rising between the pair, “Dumbledore tried, or we’re missing something. Let’s let it go for now and focus on freeing Sirius, okay, loves?” At that, Hermione’s hair began to once again adhere to gravity’s pull, as she calmed down and pulled Sirius into a hug.

“Sirius, we will  _ never  _ let this happen to you again.” She pulled away slightly to place a kiss on his cheek while he remained somewhat shocked by her quiet change in emotion. Truthfully, she was still extremely angry, her eyes still nearly giving off a warm glow. However, with Remus there, she could recognize that her fire would do nothing but burn herself and her Smelt. “Would you like to spend the rest of the day with Harry, and we can make dinner?”

Hermione and Remus tended to assume that his primary interest was spending time with Harry, but both of them had changed since they first met. Sirius was now secure in his relationship with his godson, especially since they live together, and Harry had become much harder to be around, even for a hormonal and moody teenager. Spending a week with him had been enjoyable at first, but Sirius worried about crowded him.

“Actually, can we spend some time together? I did miss you, kitten.”

“Of course, Sirius, let’s just give Harry the paper, and then we come back here.” She had considered moving into the parlour but she remembered that the entrance was passed quite frequently and she didn’t want Harry to have another fit over their relationship. Remus volunteered to provide the paper to Harry and check in on him, leaving them alone.

Looking at each other for a few seconds, unsure as to what to do for the few minutes they were alone, it felt as if they were having an unrecognized contest over who would speak first. Sirius broke first, silence felt either too formal or too depressing for his taste.

“I really did miss you, Hermione,” he murmured, moving to cup her cheek with his hand, feeling a slight rush when she almost instinctively leaned into his touch, a soft smile gracing her features.

“I missed you too, we need to spend more time together.”

“Once I’m a free man, I’ll take you to the opera if it means we can be together.” At this, Hermione laughed gently, shaking her head slightly.

“Silly dog, you know if you want something pretentious we can drink tea with your mother’s fine china while sitting upon your vault’s chests,” Hermione looked up to him with a sly smirk, causing him to bark out a laugh.

“God, I could kiss you right now!”

“You could, if you really dared.” Did he sense a challenge? If there was one thing Sirius Orion Black didn’t do, it was back away from a challenge. So, he swooped her into his arms bridal style and sat them on the couch across the room, plopping her on his lap as she laughed in shock. Then, giving her a wild look, he placed a surprisingly gentle kiss on her lips, letting her lean into it before deepening the kiss as she placed her arms around his neck. When he heard Remus begin to walk to the room’s entrance, he lightly nipped at her so she gasped, then pulled away with a grin.

She pouted for a moment before also hearing Remus, quickly moving off his lap and sitting in the middle of the couch. When he entered, he quickly took a glance at the abandoned settee before noticing the state of the pair; Hermione’s kiss-swollen lips, the light blush creeping to her cheeks from her ears, Sirius’s wolfish smile… Remus was sure that had he had a full conversation with Harry instead of the awkward, stilted one that had taken place, he would have likely walked into something much different. Shaking his head slightly, he moved to sit next to Hermione, leaving her in-between her two wolves. As they began talking, Sirius felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time, since the Potters had taken him into their manor. Sirius felt a sense of  _ home,  _ and he couldn’t wait to see where his new home would take him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for updating so late, I ended up disliking a part of this chapter and spent a few days trying to rework it. I hope it was worth it, though! It ended up being a bit longer than normal, but I think the dialogue is nice.


	16. Chapter 15: The Trial

It was finally the day. The morning after the Smelt was published, they had received a summons from the Ministry requesting a “retrial” for Sirius the Friday before the two-week mark. The time between now and then had been filled with research, organization, and Hermione’s stress. Of course, Sirius and Remus had managed to pull her away from her work to spend time with her on “dates,” from “dog” walks to private chats in the library with Remus or, Sirius’s favorite, a quick pull away, sometimes even into a closet, to quickly snog before they had to part ways.

The day before, Remus and Sirius had convinced Hermione to let go of her triple checking to go on one proper date with them as a celebration of their work. As worried as she was, she found herself being able to calm down and relax, helping her focus more on the trial to come. Today, she was able to wake up rested and quickly donned the formal clothing her parents insisted she always had “just in case,” which she found pointless until now, giving a silent, tearful thanks to them. She looked at her slacks and blouse in a sensible black and grey, respectively, and decided to witch it up with a robe, transfigured to have a red silk lining to add a touch of flair.

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, she was greeted by Sirius and Remus waiting for her, and Harry coming out of the kitchen with a snack in hand. Since Harry had read the newspaper, he had warmed up to Hermione again and apologized, although somewhat reluctantly. However, she had accepted him despite the hesitance, since he was one of her only friends who had always provided unwavering support until recently, and something in her magic told her that he was not fully himself anymore. 

In any case, he had accepted mild displays of affection, albeit with a twitching eye, so Hermione smiled at her soulmates and pulled both of them into a hug, quickly kissing each in turn when she saw Harry look away. Pulling away, she double-checked her bag, filled with her notes, Harry’s and her memories, and a copy of the will she had Remus take Harry to get. Hopefully, this would be an easy case, especially since he had served more than enough time in Azkaban if it was revealed he was an unregistered animagus.

They wanted to get to the Ministry early to get a light breakfast and escape to the trial room before there was much press, so once Hermione confirmed they had everything they moved to the front steps, Remus holding onto her and Sirius onto Harry so they could apparate to the Ministry quickly. While the apparation point was mostly empty, as they walked to the Ministry’s cafe, they attracted attention, which they ignored in their pursuit of food.

Settled down in the holding room, they went over their case, last-minute law research, and potential arguments against Sirius. When there was a knock on the door leading to the courtroom, Hermione gave Sirius a hug before taking his wand and opening the door for them, leaving Remus and Harry to wait as witnesses. Stepping into the room, Hermione took in the Wizengamot, noting that Dumbledore had recently been reinstated as Chief Warlock, which could either be a help or a detriment for the case depending on what his larger goal was.

“The accused shall sit in the chair,” declared Amelia Bones as Percy took out his quills and parchment to properly record the trial. With a hesitant look to Hermione, Sirius sat down and let the wrist and ankle cuts hold him in place. His carefully controlled calm, however, quickly fade as Umbridge gleefully gestured to open a door, unleashing six dementors that went to eagerly surround Sirius. Before he could do much more than panic and struggle against the holds, Hermione cast a powerful patronus, expelling the dementors back into their holding room.

“How  _ dare  _ you allow dementors to play into this trial!” Hermione seethed, just barely holding back from hexing Umbridge into the next century. “He is here  _ willingly,  _ without a wand and restrained, I’ll have you all remember, and has already suffered twelve years with those creatures affecting him every second of his life.”

“Miss Granger, it is protocol! Just because you’re a mudbl—”

“Then perhaps protocol should be changed.” She stared at Umbridge, challenging her not only to argue further but to complete her sentence. With a look to Fudge, Umbridge sulkily stood down, with one last glare to Hermione.

“Scribe, note that the use of dementors has been decided against for this case,” the Minister said, quickly glancing at Percy, and then the trial really started.

Luckily enough, the trial went to plan, and Sirius was finally a free man. Hermione knew that by Harry’s testimony, a large amount of the Wizengamot was on his side, but it was the Potter will that truly sealed the deal. The case was declared definite and they didn’t have to prove the Smelt completely, allowing Hermione to simply use his wand to prove that their magics accepted each other, making the Smelt plausible.

The quartet of Grimmauld Place residents was currently at Fortescue’s Parlour, celebrating Sirius’s new status, feeling an emotional high that affected even Harry, who hugged Hermione tightly, thanking her for her patience and help. As they ate their ice cream, Hermione couldn’t help but be somewhat distracted by Sirius’s arm around her shoulders and Remus’s hand holding hers. The triad had found themselves more inclined to casual touch and being together, which always gave Hermione a sense of peace. She knew there were harder times to come, this trial likely being the easiest of her hardships, but she allowed herself to hold hope while basking in the comfort of her mates and best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting often, I've just been having issues with some medications but I'm trying a new one so hopefully I'll have more energy and motivation :) Every comment and kudos means a lot though, so although I'm determined to finish this eventually all of your support encourages me to finish writing faster!


	17. Chapter 16: Birthdays and Moondays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College started August 31st and damn is it exhausting :/ My new medication is beginning to work now though so I have a lot more energy, which is good. The Mary MacDonald part is a reference to a post by @euphxmia-potter on Tumblr, which was absolutely beautiful.

It was the last week of summer break and the week of the full moon. Harry had left for the Burrow just in case the wards failed, since Snape had been “busy preparing” for class, leaving Remus without his wolfsbane. As a way to keep Remus and Sirius close to Hermione, Sirius had hesitantly allowed Dumbledore to convince him to be the DADA teacher, with Remus as his assistant. Hermione, of course, was there alongside him during his prep, discussing sixth-year lessons and advising him on the classes for fifth-year and below. Remus helped as well, but mainly with the upper two years because Hermione refused to let him do too much work with the moon so close.

A small blessing though, was that Hermione’s animagus form had finally come to her, and she had practiced transforming over the weekend to make sure she could help during the moon. Getting away from the other household members was a bit tricky, but she managed to convince Remus and Sirius to go with Harry to look at Quidditch supplies and find some coaching advice books so Hermione could prepare for Harry’s late birthday party—and get in touch with her inner animal, of course.

Reflecting back on her weekend, she felt a sense of peace, like she had helped make his party as fantastic as possible, something she knew Harry hadn’t had much of. Fantastic things, birthdays… She mused over the things he had missed for such formative years of his life, wondering if she would be more like him if she underwent the same. But then again, Hermione was sure that some of his behavior wasn’t just him, her animagus form providing her the hearing needed to tell that when he was particularly foul his voice sounded uncomfortably like _too much_.

Moving on before she got a headache, she smiled to herself as she recalled the way Harry felt so… pure, walking through the threshold to Grimmauld Place to find the forbidding walls donned in streamers and charmed paper fairies flitting around the house. Hermione felt as if she really had outdone herself this year, jars of her bluebell flames at every table Kreacher helped put into the drawing-room to accommodate the guests. Molly had decided to bring the feast, which Hermione was grateful for since she had absolutely no clue as to how to feed the 30+ people coming. When Harry entered, Hermione greeted him quietly, letting his eyes fill with tears as he ran to hug her. After a gentle thank you, she presented him with a gift, a golden key resting on a photograph.

“What…” he had murmured, before he lifted the key and saw his parents wave at him, the words “For Harry, with love” underneath them.

“I figured you would want this before the guests arrived, when I went to the Potter Manor, I found the photograph and copied the writing from their will. So now you know they’re watching over you.” With a soft smile, she gestured for him to go upstairs for some clearly-needed privacy, while Remus, Sirius, and her continued to prepare.

Of course, there had been some tension with the Weasleys first came, but between Hermione’s challenging stare and Molly’s need to maintain appearances as more people arrived kept it from reaching a peak. Ron had pointedly ignored her greeting and instead went up to Harry’s room, while Ginny gave her a devilish grin, mouthing “Is Sirius as fit as I thought?” When Harry was composed enough to come down, he had grinned at her before greeting those he knew and meeting those he didn’t. When he met Mary MacDonald for the first time, he was brought to tears again, because, for the first time, he was told he was just like his mother, from his eyes to his smile to the way he walked.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Hermione set down the book she had curled herself around and glanced at the soon-to-set sun, casting a tempus charm for the time. Sighing, she stretched her arms as far above her as she could, taking a small delight in the feeling of her spine realigning. When she arrived at the door to the basement, she could feel the wards already drawn. _They must have gone in earlier than usual,_ Hermione thought, remembering that Remus wasn’t able to have his wolfsbane. Steeling herself for the inevitable backlash she was about to cause, she disarmed the wards, stepping in and quickly recasting them and adding in an extra few.

“What the _fuck_ —”

“I’m safe here, Sirius,” Hermione said, looking to Remus reassuringly. He furrowed his brows as her for a moment before his eyes widened in understanding.

“So what are you?” He glanced down at himself quickly before looking back at her. “Can’t exactly have an otter in my… den.”

“I am _not_ an otter!” Her petulant tone made her partners chuckle, although she quickly became thoughtful. “I wonder if my patronus has changed…” She shook her head slightly, no time to ponder that. “I am perfectly canine-like, thank you very much.” At their expectant looks, she sighed before transforming, her eye level lowering to their waists.

“What in merlin’s saggy ballsack is that?” Hermione barked at him, snapping in his direction to convey her irritation.

“Language, love,” she reprimanded as soon as she changed back. “I’m a maned wolf, of course.” Remus smiled at her, beginning to laugh as he thought about her form.

“Of course you’d be too smart for a plain wolf, you need to have just a bit of fox in you.” Hermione blushed at that. She wished they could continue to talk, but she knew the moon would soon rise, and they needed to be ready.

“Would you like to introduce me to Moony?” At his nod, she changed again, slowly walking over to Remus’s crouched figure, sitting in front of him and baring her neck, letting him reach out to caress her muzzle.

“Moony could recognize you in this form from a kilometer away, you’re so distinctly you, love.” He smiled at her when she licked at his calloused palms gently, before giving a laughing bark and running over to Sirius’s still somewhat shocked form. She nipped at his slack hand, running away from him in a play fight. He belted out a laugh, warning her that he would win before transforming himself. Remus chuckled at their antics, sitting himself against the wall to watch them before he turned.

At his first groan of pain, their play stopped, and his maned wolf sat in front of him, whining softly at his discomfort. When it was over, she let Moony approach first, her neck bared once again as he lowered to breathe in her scent, his breath warming her neck’s fur. He wanted her, _badly,_ but knew this wasn’t the optimal form, so for now he would accept her as pack, his alpha, with Sirius their beta.

While he was thinking, Moony had decided it was time to take out his energy, roughhousing with his mates and giving Hermione affection… well, whatever a werewolf deemed appropriate for an incompatible form of her, which was mostly nips and nuzzles. While Hermione was still aware of herself, she found that she enjoyed leaning into her canid’s instincts, playing with Sirius and teasing Remus before feigning defeat. While she knew Remus wasn’t himself, his relatively light swipes and nips still breaking skin, she was happy to be there for him. As she let the wolf fully take over, her humanity simply existed, screaming from her soul to the edges of her very being that they were safe, and that they are, in this moment, carefree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for keeping this chapter behind closed doors for so long, I added a couple hundred words to compensate slightly ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyways, I have a tumblr @vuldromeda, I post art for this and other stuff sometimes, check it out if you want.


	18. Chapter 17: Going to Hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, finals suck ass. However, I did get a chance to look back at the previous chapter and realize where a change needed to be made (although it might not have been noticed, lol). I referred to Harry's birthday as being the week before school, implying they started August 1st despite the fact that they start in September. To fix this, I changed it to refer to it as being Harry's late birthday party--I like to think that Sirius and Harry had a small event for themselves on the actual day but couldn't have a proper gathering because of everything else going on. I'll also probably edit this later because I wrote this on my phone and I can't tell if there's any formatting errors on mobile :/

As with Remus’s beginnings as a professor, Sirius and Remus took the train with the students instead of using the typical floo. Although there was still a tension between Ron and Hermione, Ron had to go with his other best friend, Luna, and Neville. He considered sitting with Ginny for a bit ( _ “Even my bratty little sister would be better than dealing with that slag” _ ), but she was with Dean, and they were in the “on” part of their off and on again relationship. At least, Ron thought, Harry felt the same even if he hid it from everyone.

While having two adults made the compartment a bit of a tight fit, they were comfortable enough, especially knowing that Luna was going to go off in a bit to sit with Ginny and the younger students. Hermione was sandwiched in-between Sirius and Remus, leaving the others to cram themselves onto the other seat, luggage packed into the compartments above them. The initial conversations were nice, catching up with Luna and Neville (“I’m glad the nargles have left you, Hermione” and “Yeah, I got Trevor a new cage for travelling, he won’t want to get out now!”) Of course, that didn’t last.

“So, Hermione,” Ron started, the first thing he’s said directed to her since the article came out. “When do you think you’ll be done with this?” The tension that suddenly filled the room could be cut with a knife; Remus gave a concerned look to Sirius as if to beg him not to react (one spitfire was enough for the cramped room), while Hermione glared daggers at Ron.

“Done with  _ what,  _ exactly, Ronald,” Hermione gritted out, her hands tightening their hold on each of her partners’ hands, the only way she could reliably know she wouldn’t make any rash hexes.

“You know what I’m talking about, ‘Mione!” He shouted, nearly smacking Neville as he flung his arms out. “You’re not even of age and Sirius is free so you don’t have to fake whatever fake soulbond you made up for him, you know.”

“How  _ dare  _ you!” Hermione’s hair sparked at the ends, white-hot particles attempting to float their way closer to Ron. “ _ First  _ of all, Ronald, you should know not to disrespect magic like that! I would  _ never  _ even think about making up something as important as bonds that connect souls, you know Molly's brother's had a bond like us!.”

"As if real magic would connect three souls like that when none of them are related,” Ron scoffed, ignoring her hair’s shed magic angrily flare toward him, just a little bit closer than before. "My uncles were twins, it's different. Plus they weren't with some woman young enough to be their child!" At that, she gave up the attempt to avoid hexing him. She let go of her soulmates and stood, her hair sparks eagerly taking advantage of being closer to Ron to finally land on any exposed flesh they could reach.

"That is _ enough _ ! I am tired of you acting like a self absorbed, self righteous gremlin of a wizard!" She drew her wand, ignoring his cries of pain, and continued on as she began moving her wand. "You do not have a say in who I am with when you act less mature than a child, and you most definitely do  _ not _ have a say in whether or not I love more than one person! You are my friend and nothing more, not my mother, not my counselor, not my anything, and you need to accept that!" With those final words, she finished her modified Oppugno so that, instead of her signature canaries, she unleashed a pack of black dragons, the same size as the figure Harry got from the Triwizard Tournament.

Once Ron ran out the door trailed by her dragons, Hermione calmed somewhat, grip loosening on her wand as she turned to look at the remaining compartment mates. Neville was politely looking away while Luna was staring at the now-closed door in that odd way that signified that she was disappointed. Harry looked conflicted, which made sense since he just watched his two best friends fight, as was Remus, contrasting Sirius who appeared to be in awe.

Before Hermione could apologize to Luna and Neville, Luna began to speak.

"Don't worry, Hermione, Ron just needs to ignore the Blibbering Humdingers, then he'll be okay." With one of her airy smiles, she got up. "I think I'll go check on Ginny now." In lieu of a goodbye, she looked at Harry. "You are surrounded by Wrackspurts, Harry, please be careful."

Once she left, Hermione plopped down between her partners with a sigh. She placed her wand back into it's holster, and patted down some of the remaining extra frizz in her hair.

"Sorry, Harry," she grabbed her partners hands with a sheepish expression. "Are you okay? I just… I can't just take it laying down all the time." Fortunately, Harry was in one of his better moods today.

"I know, Hermione." Harry gave her a hesitant smile. "Without your bond, Sirius wouldn't be free, so even if I was upset about it I'd still be grateful." He ignored the part of himself that, quieter than normal, that thought that Ron had a point. After all, he did too, and he needed to be at least somewhat diplomatic regarding his two friends.

With that, the argument was pushed away for now, and Hermione finally dispelled the dragons ten minutes before they arrived, giving him enough time to quickly get dressed before getting onto the carriages while Sirius and Remus hurried off to get to the staff table on time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ignore this if you don't want to read about some personal updates, lol.
> 
> My chronic health issues have started flaring again since I last posted, which is why I haven't updated in awhile. However, I finally got diagnosed with PCOS so hopefully I'll find some effective treatment methods. I'm also only taking one class starting next week instead of three, so I should have more time available to write, I've missed this story :(


	19. Chapter 18: Speeches and Settling In

Once everyone was settled in the main hall, first-years sorted, Dumbledore stood and went to the podium, getting the attention of the students, curious about the change in entrance protocol. Before too much suspense could build, he began to speak, a  _ Sonorus  _ cast to amplify his voice for the students furthest from him in the back of the hall.

“Good evening to you all. I would like to welcome our newest first-years to our school, and welcome our other students back. This year, more than ever, will require unity, so please treat our newest Hogwarts members well and help them throughout the year.

“I would also like to introduce both a new and returning staff member. Sirius Black has graciously decided to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts this year, assisted by Remus Lupin, a familiar face to many of you. Please give them a warm welcome.” He paused to allow for applause, then, with a more serious expression, he continued to speak.

“I am sure many of you were, and still are, confused by my decision to have each and every one of you searched upon arrival, and you deserve to know why.

“Once, there was a young man, very much like you: he sat in this hall, walked our castle’s corridors, slept under Hogwarts’ roof. To the world, and to you, he would seem to be like any other student. His name was Tom Riddle, and of course, now, he is known around the world by another name.

“He is why, as I stand at this podium, welcoming all you brilliant students, I am sobered by the reminder that, every day, every hour, every minute, even every second, perhaps, dark forces seek to get through these great walls.

“But, in the end, remember that the greatest weapon is you. As long as you students stand for our castle, stand for each other, and stand for yourself, you will always have a place at these tables. And remember, should you ever need to speak about something, my gargoyle is always ready to open. Please, with that in mind, enjoy your meal.” With his last words, the silver domes disappeared, exposing the freshly prepared food.

“Well, that was cheerful,” Harry said as he and Ron started to fill their plates and Hermione poured herself a goblet of pumpkin juice. Before answering, she looked at Sirius and Remus and was met with a smirk from Sirius and an encouraging smile from Remus. They quickly indicated for Hermione to hold on while they did… something, making Hermione narrow her eyes before conceding and turning to Harry and, by extension, Ron.

“Definitely a more depressing start than normal,” she agreed, while Ron nodded with his mouth full. “Hopefully a bit uplifting considering the end, though, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Harry trailed off, gazing off into the distance (or at the Slytherin table, perhaps), deep in thought.

“What’s up, Harry?”

“Oh!” Harry seemed to snap out of it then smiled at her. “Nothing much.” Before Hermione could inquire more, a small, folded piece of parchment formed into a maned wolf in front of her, walking around her plate to sit next to her hand. Smiling to herself, she looked up at the staff table to her partners’ matching grins, playfully rolling her eyes.

“Oi, what’s that, ‘Mione,” Ron asked in-between bites, curiosity winning over his anger at her. She shook her head slightly.

“Nothing, really, just a gift.” Leaving it to the side, away from prying eyes, they finished their meals with small banter until Professor McGonagall got up to send the students to their houses, instructing the prefects to lead the first-years, and so on.

When she was finally done with her responsibilities, she settled down one of the armchairs in the common room, somewhat close to Ron and Harry (playing chess, of course), and tapped her paper wolf with her wand, causing it to unfold. It was a short note to her from Remus and Sirius.

> “ _ Our little wolf, _
> 
> _ We know you miss us already, so we have a surprise (One of us, rather, Remus didn’t want to risk it but I convinced him). I slipped a small mirror into your luggage, but if you cast the engorgement charm on it, it should become full-sized. If you’d like, see what happens if you try to step through it at its full-size, you might like what happens. No pressure, of course. _
> 
> _ With love, _
> 
> _ P + M” _

Hermione lightly smiled at the note, shaking her head. Of course they would figure out some way to keep her days a bit unpredictable amidst the routine of Hogwarts, although she was sure Harry and Ron would figure out some way to tear her away from school to save their lives. Folding the parchment into quarters, she slipped it into her robe pocket, away from the potential curiosity of her friends if they happened to see it, and started planning out her schedule, waiting until a believable time for her to go up to the dorm and test out whatever it was Sirius and Remus (she didn’t believe for a second that Remus was reluctant about whatever their plan was) charmed the mirror with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a bit shorter than usual but the next scene was too long to fit in without having to push back this chapter by another week or so :/ hope you enjoy nonetheless, the next chapter should be fun :)


	20. Chapter 19: Through the Looking Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made this a bit longer than usual (almost twice as long as my usual chapters) as an apology for updating so late. I ended up getting stuck on a particular area but decided to try out something different instead of spending another day figuring out how to describe something, so let me know what you think! This chapter is definitely a bit more fluff than I intended but I figured no one would complain about things getting a bit heated ;)

After she had finished her block scheduling, her classes neatly arranged on the parchment, she had done enough to excuse herself from the common room, playfully ruffling Harry’s hair as she bade her friends goodnight. Once in her room, she settled onto her bed next to the shrunken luggage placed there for her to unpack, casting the engorgement charm to return her bags to their full size. She opened her largest bag, an excited gasp coming out when she was greeted by an ornately detailed mirror, a little cloudy as if an image was superimposed onto it at a very low opacity.

With a smile, she picked up the mirror and placed a hand against the glass cautiously, although nothing happened. She quickly drew her wand, charm on her lips to see what her soulmates spent their free time on, before suddenly pausing. With a slow breath, she gently placed the mirror down on the other side of her—she needed to unpack first. Putting her wand on her bedside table, she went through her bags and took out her stuff, starting with her folded spare robes at the top. Hidden below that was the muggle clothing she wore to Hogsmeade and some other miscellaneous clothing. Then, she paused.

As she took out the stacks of clothing, she heard the clink of glass, a small drawstring bag shifting. She took a deep breath, then grabbed her wand to efficiently place everything into the chest at the foot of her bed, sorted and neatly placed. Then, she gently took the bag out, pulling out the two glass vials that reminding her of their existence a bit sooner than she would like. Placing them down next to the mirror, she then took out a folded picture, debating over whether to reminisce before messing with mirror magic. Of course, she couldn’t resist the pull of her memories, carefully opening the picture to look at when she was a child, a picture taken of her and her parents on the first day of third grade, her hair practically the same size as her body.

[ ](https://imgur.com/TAcpD5D)

Smiling as tears began to fall down her cheeks, she gave herself time to mourn. Although her parents weren’t truly dead, their bodies somewhere in Australia, moving and breathing and talking, she was dead to them. Even worse, actually, she didn’t even exist, and while she had their milky white memories in vials there was no guarantee she could restore them or even make it through the war if things kept getting worse. However, she still had her own memories of them, and she knew that although they would be disappointed in her removal of their memories. But, she also knew that they would be proud of her if she made it through this war, although their relationship would be permanently altered by her actions toward her.

Giving herself a few minutes to cry, she put herself together and placed her sentimental items back in her bag, pulling the drawstrings tight and carefully pushing it to the bottom of her chest. Then she picked up the shrunken mirror and carefully checked over her appearance to ensure she wouldn’t worry her soulmates. Noticing her puffy eyes and reddened nose, she quickly ran to the washroom and splashed cold water on her face to help reduce it.

Settling back down on the bed, she returned the mirror back to its full size after leaning it against the wall. Quickly casting some subtle glamours to make sure any of her roommates didn’t get a bit too curious and decide to pry, then approached the mirror to carefully touch the maned wolf standing at the top of the mirror. As she touched the gold, the wolf turned her head, making Hermione gasp and move her hand away. The golden wolf seemed to smile at her before stretching and moving off the mirror (which Hermione was stunned by, trying to quickly figure out how complex the spellwork must have been for this to work so smoothly), only to… run back to the mirror, this time leaping _into_ it. Hermione smiled, realizing what Sirius and Remus had done. Then, trying her hardest not to hesitate, she closed her eyes and stepped into the mirror.

Opening her eyes, she was greeted with what seemed to be a common room, a fireplace gently burning to ward off the castle’s draftiness. Then her eyes landed on her Sirius and Remus, Sirius grinning in her direction while Remus was reading.

“I told you she would come,” he said, just a hint of smugness coming through his tone just for Remus, who wasn’t looking at him. Hermione shyly smiled, tucking an errant curl behind her ear as Remus closed his book and looked up at her, smiling.

“Sirius has been staring at the mirror waiting for you, he could have told me earlier so I could greet you immediately, though.” Remus gave a mock pout before gesturing toward the mirror behind her, making Hermione turn and—

“Oh!” She knew the maned wolf had gone through the mirror, but she thought that was more of a “tutorial” for her than something fully fleshed out. But, her wolf was now at the top of this mirror, nestled against a bronze, shaggy dog and a wolf.

“When one of us touches the mirror, our figure will go through so as a ‘notification’ of sorts,” Sirius explained, still grinning madly. “But can we explain it to you later? It’s getting late and you and Remus could drag that conversation on for hours.” Ending with a whine, Sirius gave his best imitation of a begging dog, although the twinkle in his eye ruined any authenticity. Sighing, Hermione acquiesced, then moved to sit next to Sirius on the three-seater.

“Dumbledore didn’t really want you to move into a private area—”

“And we don’t want you to if you don’t,” Sirius interrupted.

“Yes, of course, but the whole point is that we wanted you to have the option since we won’t be able to spend time with each other outside of Hogsmeade otherwise,” Remus finished. After taking a moment to take in what they were saying, Hermione smiled.

“That’s very sweet, loves,” Hermione looked at Remus as she leaned against Sirius a bit. “Why don’t you come here, Remus?” With a slight eye roll, Remus nodded and put his book onto the end table before moving to the other side of Hermione, shaking his head when she immediately moved to curl up between them.

“What, we don’t get much time to ourselves and you both are rather warm.” With a small laugh, Sirius moved and wrapped his arms around her (“Well, if you insist on being warmed up, love”), pulling her against his chest as Hermione playfully protested, pulling Remus along with her so they ended up crammed close to the end of the couch. After letting each other adjust, so that Hermione’s back was against Sirius, legs curled up on Remus, they began to talk about what they needed to do over the weekend before classes. When Hermione excitedly began talking about her courses, Sirius groaned and practically begged for a change in subject. Laughing, Hermione leaned her head back to look up at him.

“What would you have us talk about, then?” Sirius’s eyes twinkled again, letting her know that she shouldn’t exactly expect a serious answer.

“How about the way you move when you laugh and the way it affects your poor soulmate?” He lightly thrust against her so she became aware of his hardness without jostling her too much or making her legs lose their place on Remus’s lap. When Hermione’s eyes fluttered, Sirius saw Remus’s eyes flash gold, effectively changing the group’s mood. Sirius and Remus waited with bated breath for Hermione to consent (or ask to stop, if she wanted). After a moment, Hermione shifted to move more fully onto Sirius and nodded her consent before vocally giving it.

“Just not too far today?”

“Of course, love,” Remus agreed, leaning to her now that her legs were out of the way.

“Stop us if it gets to be too much,” Sirius murmured before gently, almost reverently moving her hair out of the way and placing his lips against her neck while Remus captured her lips with his. As Sirius hit sensitive spots, Remus swallowed her moans, committing her sounds to memory. Once Sirius had moved down to her shoulder and back again, he lightly nipped at her earlobe before gently turning her so that he could switch with Remus almost seamlessly.

“You are _perfect,_ Hermione,” Remus nearly growled against her skin, giving her no chance to argue as he lightly nipped at the point where her neck and shoulder met, making her break into a moan against Sirius, arching her back slightly, breathing heavy. Breaking away from her momentarily, Sirius whispered his agreement before moving once again, pressing her against his chest so that Remus had full access to her decolletage.

“Why stop,” Hermione breathed out as Remus continued his quest to find her sweet spots.

“It would be incredibly hard to control myself if I didn’t, love,” he told her, kissing the top of her head as her hips rolled, seeking more pleasure. “Plus, you look so lovely with Remus making you feel good.” Remus worked his way back to her lips from her shoulders as Sirius held her hair out of the way, focusing on keeping himself from bucking against her each time she moaned. Giving her one final kiss, Remus pulled away, eyes heavy with lust and almost a pure gold. Breathing heavily, Hermione looked at Remus and shyly smiled. Giving herself a moment to compose herself slightly, she reached out to hold his hand.

“Were we too much?”

“Not at all, Sirius,” Hermione shook her head for emphasis, leaning into his touch as he cupped her cheek. “I wish I could return the favor…”

“Don’t you worry about that, Hermione,” Remus said, pressing a kiss to the top of her hand as his eyes slowly lost the gold.

“I think you can tell how much that affected us, little wolf,” Sirius very lightly pressed himself against her for emphasis. “Being with you as you are, and being given whatever you are able to give, is more than we could ever have asked for.” Blushing, Hermione nodded in acceptance before becoming aware of the time.

“I wish I could stay, but I didn’t ward my bed like normal, Lavender and Parvati will notice.” 

“We understand,” Remus smiled at her before letting go of her hand. As they adjusted themselves and prepared for Hermione to go back through the mirror, she noticed the way Remus’s eyes hadn’t quite returned to normal yet.

“Tomorrow I’ll stay, but for now…” She trailed off as she touched the mirror, entranced by the wolf seeming to say goodbye to her partners before leaving through the glass. Snapping out of it, she continued. “For now, why don’t you take care of each other since I couldn’t help?” Before they could respond, she quickly kissed both their cheeks and stepped through, leaving Remus and Sirius to look at each other with wide, curious eyes.


	21. Chapter 20: First Morning at Hogwarts

Hermione took a steadying breath when she stepped through. Opening her eyes, she turned back to smile at her wolf before casting a shrinking charm. Tomorrow, she would extend her curtains to cover some of the area next to her bed, just enough so she could mount the mirror at it’s full size and have some privacy when using it. Going to the bathroom, she decided to treat herself to a lavender and rosemary bath, letting the dried herbs relax her muscles and soothe her mind, before taming her still-dry hair into a braid and putting on a nightgown.

When she walked back into the dormitory, she found Lavender and Parvati waiting for her.

“So, you and Sirius?” Hermione raised a brow at Lavender’s question.

“Oh, hello Lavender,” she started, dripping with sarcasm. “I’m doing well, thank you for asking.” At that, Parvati winced.

“Sorry, Hermione, we just didn’t know you were interested in older men!” Hermione paused momentarily, before closing her eyes to conceal her eye roll.

“I’m not interested in anyone except my soulmates, so there was no reason for me to tell you about nonexistent preferences.”  _ And,  _ she silently continued,  _ Lavender can’t be trusted with anything vaguely related to gossip.  _ At that, Lavender’s eyes narrowed slightly, eyes shining with excitement.

“Soulmates?” At that, Hermione didn’t even bother to hide her eye roll.

“Yes, Lavender. Did you only skim the article? Smelts come in trios. Rita wrote at like 5 pieces on who she thought it was depending on the day.”

“So was she right?”

“About who? Malfoy, Harry, Ron… she really gave a plethora of options.” At that, Parvati elbowed Lavender, whispering what Hermione thought sounded like “it’s Harry, of course.” While they talked in hushed, rushed voices, Hermione allowed herself to quietly laugh at the idea of how disastrous it would be if Harry was the other third of the Smelt.

“Well, it’s getting a bit late and I have to prepare in the morning, so I think I’m calling it a night,” she interrupted after she tired of their whispering, giving them a polite smile before sitting on her bed, closing the curtains on one side and opening the other to quickly grab a book for her light reading—after all, she knew it wasn’t really  _ that  _ late. So, she quickly closed the remaining curtains and cast her extensive charms. She huffed the beginnings of a laugh, her night routine had begun as a result of Sirius breaking into Harry’s dorms their third year. While she knew now that he meant no harm, it still taught her that dorms weren’t someplace where a dark wizard would suddenly cease-fire, although she was sure Harry doesn’t ward his bed and he was really the one with reasoning to do so. She made a note to herself to get onto him about that during one of his better days, then settled down to read her book ( _ The Art of Runic Enhancement in Potions and Charms _ ).

* * *

In the morning, Hermione got ready quickly, she wanted some time to change her curtains and pop in to say hello to her mates. Throwing on the first pair of jeans and shirt she grabbed, she moved into the bathroom to brush her teeth, blinking back tears at her memory of the song her mother would sing to time two minutes for her. Taking a deep breath afterward, she looked at herself in the mirror, lightly patting her eyes with a damp towel before washing her face and taking out her braid, letting her hair puff out again.

Moving back into the dorm room, she quietly detached the U-shaped curtain rod from the left support, then transfigured the rod so the shortest part lengthened and the end turned again to connect back to the initial support. Noting the lack of support, Hermione turned a spare metal button she had into another support to go at the bottom of her bed, keeping it level. Finally, she used an extra shirt she never wore to make an extra curtain, so she had one on either side of her added support. Stepping back from her work, she beamed. It looked nearly seamless, the main difference being a change in material between the curtains. However, it would do and was reversible easily enough if needed. So, she pushed open the curtain and stepped inside, taking her shrunken mirror and returning it to full size. Carefully applying a sticking charm, she mounted it on the wall and smiled at her wolf.

She gently placed her hand on the mirror and let the wolf go through, then stepped through herself. When she stepped into their common area, she quickly found that Remus and Sirius weren’t fully ready yet. So, she set off toward what she thought could be their rooms, and knocked on the first door she heard sound coming from. Getting the okay, she opened the door and stepped in to find Remus getting dressed while Sirius slept in his bed.

“So, you got some relief last night?” At Remus’s blush, she smiled at him. “I’m glad you could help each other, but… should we wake him up?”

“Probably, but we went to sleep kind of late…” Remus was too sweet when it came to caring for others, sometimes.

“That’s okay. How likely is it that he’ll try to hex me if he’s startled?” Remus gave her an odd look, then hesitantly answered.

“Not very, we know you’re the only one who can get in and our magic can sense yours. It’s… reassuring to have near.”

“That’s so sweet! I’m definitely not being sweet right now, though.” With that, she quickly kissed him, then grinned. He watched her, confusion changing to shock as she flopped onto the bed, landing on Sirius heavily, causing him to huff out quickly, eyes flying open. Hermione quickly moved to curl up on his chest, placing a kiss on his cheek before greeting him with a cheery, “Good morning, love!”

“Morning, little wolf,” Sirius got out through his yawn, sitting up and stretching on arm at a time to keep a hold on her, still curled against him. “To what pleasure do we owe this visit, Hermione?”

“I just wanted to say good morning before you had to go to the staff tables,” she smiled sweetly at him. “You should probably expect this more often, it’s nice to see you both.”

“That’ll be nice if Sirius wakes up on time, then,” Remus chuckled, grinning at the pair, fully dressed now. At that, Sirius squeezed his arms around Hermione tighter, making her giggle.

“I don’t know about that, Moony. I wouldn’t mind much if Hermione woke me up like this every day.” Hermione laughed a little bit louder, then worked herself out of his grasp.

“As much fun as it was, we do have to go, we’re expected at the first breakfast.” She kissed Sirius’s temple and gave Remus a hug, giving a tight squeeze before giving her goodbyes and rushing to the mirror before anyone questioned why she was “sleeping in.” As they watched her leave, Sirius sighed.

“This is going to be a long fucking year without more of her around,” Sirius whined. And… Remus, unfortunately, couldn’t help but agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm planning to have a bit of a time jump after this, I feel like this is a lot of fluff and not enough plot right now, which isn't necessarily bad for a fanfiction but I'm using this to practice some techniques for a novel which I'd like to have a bit more streamlined. I'm roughing out the rest of this story right now instead of writing chapters, so I apologize for the delay.


	22. Chapter 21: Yet Another New Professor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! As a symbol of love for your support, I decided to upload this early :) If you want more info on why I've been gone so long--if you aren't interested just know I've written ahead so I shouldn't have another long hiatus like this again :)

At breakfast, it was easy to notice another presence at the professors’ table, considering the table had to be expanded yet again. A rather large man sat next to an increasingly irritated Snape, gathering attention as students walked into the Great Hall. Hermione kept her thoughts to herself, ignoring how Ron whispered to Harry about asking her who he was. Once everyone was settled in the Great Hall, Dumbledore rose. He announced a late arrival to the staff, a previously retired professor who accepted to be Snape’s assistant. Due to his experience, Dumbledore explained, he would be teaching fifth years and up. He finished by mentioning that the head of each house will provide revised schedules if needed.

“Of course they got rid of him  _ after  _ we had him, yeah?” Ron asked Harry, playfully bumping his shoulder. Ron was firm in his anger toward Hermione, but stood loyal to Harry, leaving Harry in an awkward position of being both the figurative and literal middleman.

“They didn’t  _ technically _ get rid of him, though,” Hermione said. “I hope Professor Slughorn is a good teacher…” Ron rolled his eyes before taking another bite of food.

“Oh, being civil now, are we?”

“I would always be civil if you didn’t decide you needed to meddle in my personal affairs,” she sniffed, subtly glancing at Harry to note his growing discomfort. Fortunately for him, the impending argument was averted by McGonagall, giving new schedules to Ron and Harry. After skimming through his adjusted schedule, Harry looked up at the professor.

“I thought I didn’t score high enough for potions this year?”

“You got an exceptional, which is plenty high enough for Professor Slughorn,” she smiled at him. “I remember you mentioning that you might want to be an Auror, so I thought you’d want the appropriate classes.” After giving his thanks, McGonagall moved on.

“I hope Slughorn has extra textbooks, I didn’t get one this year.” Ron nodded, both of them ignoring Hermione’s “ _ Professor  _ Slughorn.” Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, but didn’t comment, since Harry seemed happier than normal—he didn’t mention being disappointed about his N.E.W.T. classes, but perhaps he just chose not to dwell on the limited career options he would have had. Hermione grabbed Harry’s schedule while they finished eating, comparing classes and determining how she would get around the school to stick somewhat near him and Ron (she already knew Ron had the same schedule as Harry by this point).

Once they had all finished eating, they headed to their defense class. To an outsider, it was clear what the trio individually thought of the professors. Hermione had a bit more of a bounce in her step than she usually did for her classes, Harry had a cautiously optimistic grin as he spoke to Hermione, and Ron wore a grimace, making it clear that he still had his grievances. However, it was undeniable that Sirius had experience, not just from his time in Azkaban but from his time as an Auror during the first war.

Filing into the narrow door, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief to see blue accents on some of the students already seated. She had been worried that, as was common in the past, they would place Gryffindors and Slytherins together in DADA, because letting tension arise in the class where students duel against each other is a smart idea apparently. As the first one into the room, she rushed to a table in the front, she wasn’t sure exactly how Sirius would lecture but she remembered him mentioning he would spend the first day reviewing curriculum and some other foundations.

Once she saw Harry and Ron sit down, she took out a new addition to her bag, a black journal she took her wand to in order to engrave with the subject name. She had one for each class, each in a different color, and spelled to add pages as she ran out. It was the same brand as her mother’s favorite, the kind she would use to track their practice’s expenses. Of course, she still had to use a quill and ink in class for who knows what reason, but this year she would be damned if she had to continue wasting time on ink when she could be using a muggle pen for her homework. Before she could let her questions about why the wizarding world uses such outdated ideologies and innovations, she felt herself drawn to the office door.

Looking in that direction, she stared for a few seconds before the door opened and Sirius and Remus walked in. The conversation in the class died down as everyone prepared to meet yet another new professor.

“Good morning everyone,” Sirius began. “Today is going to be an easy class relative to those to come. I know you haven’t had a single good professor aside from my lovely assistant professor, Professor Lupin,” at that he gave a dramatic flourish in Remus’s direction, making the werewolf roll his eyes before moving to sit at the desk Sirius was leaning on.

“Anyways, whatever you learned from him was squandered by a particular pink toad that shall not be named.” He paused for a moment, allowing the snickers to die down before continuing. “Regardless of what she may have said, you are our future. We need you to be prepared, not just for when you walk into your new house to find it infested by ghouls and pixies, but for the possibility that you will come face to face with a dark witch or wizard ready to duel.

“And these wizards aren’t going to have a formal duel with you where it ends once you lose a wand. They are out to  _ kill, capture,  _ and  _ destroy.  _ We are in dark times, and we may all well know some on that side.” Sirius paused for a moment, looking hesitant. “But don’t be afraid to extend cautious kindness to your peers, regardless of your suspicions. We need unity to move to lighter times, and not everyone had a choice as to who they pledge allegiance to.” Hermione narrowed her eyes at him for a second, trying to think of who he could have meant, before widening her eyes in understanding.

“No matter where you are in this war—and believe me, there is a war regardless of what anyone tells you—it is our job to protect you, and part of that is to give you what you need to protect yourself when needed.” Sirius looked around the room, making eye contact with each student before smiling, trying to lighten the now somber mood.

“Anyways, I’m sure  _ some  _ of you are dying to know what you’ll learn this year.” Remus waved his wand, moving a blackboard out of its storage for Sirius. “I’m sure you all know that I have some… experience, let’s say, with dark creatures. This year our focus will be on dementors and inferi, but we will take some time to review some of the particularly important creatures from previous years you may not have learned about.

“However, what you may not know is that I used to be an Auror. The Auror Department was and almost certainly still is understaffed for the times we are in, so if any of you had a particular interest in the career you might notice me taking a few lessons from them. Primarily, you will learn how to cast nonverbally, as well as take a crash course in practicing spells from fifth year. Additionally, you will learn how to fight. Not duel, but fight like you would in the real world. Any questions?”

The questions took a while, although Hermione could glance to either side of her and see that they did a lot to reassure her peers. From the slightly personal (“Did you ever kill someone?”) to the academic (“How will you grade practical tests?”), getting a chance to voice concerns helped alleviate them. However, she could feel people looking in her direction, as if they needed to ask a question about her, which was understandable. So, Hermione decided to take the initiative and raised her hand, waiting for Sirius to call on her.

“Professor,” she began, ignoring Remus’s quiet snort. “I’m sure there are concerns regarding the nature of our relationship and your potential bias. Would you explain how you will remain impartial?”

“Easy, Miss Granger,” Remus once again quietly expressed his amusement while Sirius shifted to address the entirety of the class. “Everyone should rest assured that your grades will remain impartial. Not only has Miss Granger received top marks from all her professors in the past, indicating that she is receiving those scores through her own will, but you should want anyone you hold dear to improve. As she is someone I hold dear, I will grade her just as harshly as every other student, and I can already say I know something she could work on.

“In fact,” Sirius continued, moving attention away from Hermione, who had already begun coloring. “Professor Lupin and I have gone through our roster and taken notes on what he has noticed to be individual weak points, although that may have changed slightly throughout your time at Hogwarts. If you want to discuss that, you can meet one of us during office hours, although your notes will change throughout the year.”

With Hermione asking the last question, Sirius quickly moved on to clear the blackboard he had covered with keynotes from his talk, then wrote down the recommended reading for their next class. His last order of business was to give an assignment: writing a list of the dark creatures they remember learning about with a short description. With their first class over, Hermione smiled at Harry and Ron, waving to her soulmates before hurrying off to her next class, her friends walking her there since they had a break. With how well her first class went, she was sure that her day would be a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I've been gone for a while haven't I? There's been a lot going on for me, but I've been well. I've been on winter break, classes start tomorrow for me! While I wasn't actively updating, I went through and actually outlined and finalized the plot for this, and wrote a ton of chapters ahead of time! I hope that the new chapters show a bit of change--while I quite enjoy the fluff that has been the majority of this fic, I wanted to start writing some more plot-heavy chapters, but I hope to still keep a good bit of fluff in the mix. I planned to have more done, but I ended up having an emergency appendectomy so I ended up needing to slow down my writing rate, but I'm okay! I hope you all have been doing well :)


	23. Chapter 22: First Day of School

Her day was decidedly  _ not  _ a good day. Settled down in the library, she huffed as her thoughts went back to the day. Care of Magical Creatures was the same as usual, although she was sad to see how many students already recognized what thestrals looked like, as if so many of them had already seen death. It wasn’t that that had set her off, however. No, she grimaced as her mind moved onto her first afternoon course: Potions.

She had hoped for a suitable teacher but was sorry to say that she could tell that Slughorn wasn’t as skilled as Snape. Additionally, he seemed more focused on himself and sucking up to Harry than he did on helping his students improve and learn, which had already dampened Hermione’s day more than the thestrals had. But not only that, now she had to deal with working out the intentions of a man from the past she didn’t know the true identity of. 

Slughorn had let Ron and Harry claim their textbooks from the shelves with a request to put them back at the end of the year (“I found one of them halfway across the room, all written up for Merlin’s sake”). Harry, for some reason, picked the book with mysterious writing, either through curiosity or sheer bad luck. Hermione tried to convince him not to trust some “Half-Blood Prince,” but he had ignored her, back in one of his moods. And he somehow benefitted!

Hermione was in such disbelief, she had barely paid attention to her Muggle Studies lesson, although she didn’t  _ really  _ need to attend. As it was, she still couldn’t figure out how Harry had miraculously created the best potion. Of course, she wasn’t upset because he had received a vial of felix felicus or was doing well academically. She was frustrated that he was receiving higher scores than her, yes, but only because it wasn’t through his own work but through some unknown person’s instructions. And since some of his instruction had been proven true, now she would have to research some of the spells created and stored within the potion book’s pages.

With her luck, during their walk to her next class, they had gotten into a proper argument about it. Since Harry was back to being his… darker self, he interpreted her attempts to explain how dangerous that book could be as her being jealous of him. Of course, with that said, Ron was all too happy to agree and add that she was trying to make him jealous about… something? Hermione really lost the plot when he started that avenue. She just resigned herself to a few days without her friends while they cooled down.

And so here she was, scouring the pages of ancestry books trying to find a descendant of royalty, or perhaps someone whose last name was Prince and was also a halfblood. Once she either figured out potential candidates or exhausted her academic resources, she planned to move onto potions theory. While she had researched ways to further her practice by incorporating other areas of magic into potions, she had done dreadfully little research on the foundations. She had always held firm in her belief that, no matter how rude and broody, Snape possessed an exceptional understanding of his craft few would be dedicated enough to have, as was clear by Slughorn.

By the time she had finished compiling notes and going through the further texts she found referenced in the writings, she had filled the table practically from edge to edge. She was lucky that she was known for doing research unrelated to her classes, so when another student saw her with an odd book, her table was left alone. Casting a tempus charm, she saw that she had finished her studying a bit earlier than normal, her irritation likely having caused her to speed up her process to prove herself right. So, with neat flicks of her wand, Hermione cleaned her table, leaving neat stacks of books sorted by subject and shelf location and a piece of parchment with a list of names and special order books she might need.

As she levitated her stacks of books to return to the library’s front desk, she hesitated for a moment before pulling a slim potions book out of her magic’s reach. Even though she decided to stay with Remus and Sirius for the night, she may as well keep a book on hand just in case Sirius somehow failed to distract them. Smiling at Madam Pince as she sent the books to arrange themselves appropriately on her “return” pile and handed her the book she would keep, she kept her thoughts on her mates. Should she change before she goes through the mirror? Should she pack her school uniform to change in the morning or wait to get ready in her dorm?

Before she knew it, she was at the tower uttering the password to the Fat Lady. As the portrait swung open, she heard Harry and Ron laughing, although it died down at the sound of her first step into the common room. Locking eyes with Harry’s cold stare, looked at him with disappointment before going up to her dorm, ignoring the beginning of Ron’s shout. She didn’t want nor did she need to waste time on a one-sided argument when she had better people to spend her time with.

In the dorm, Hermione once again paused, internally debating over whether or not to change. And, if she were to change, how much would she dress herself up anyways? Making an impulse decision, she quickly changed into her flared yoga pants and a loose blouse, something different from her uniform while still being comfortable. She looked at herself in the mirror, then quickly applied a glamour charm to make her lips a little rosier and add a bit of shadow to her lids. After touching the mirror and seeing her wolf stay on the other side, she smiled and stepped through the mirror.

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments would be appreciated! This isn't beta'd so I may have missed some edits and things like that, but I hope it wasn't too terrible. Thank you for reading :)


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